THE 



CHRISTIAN AMBASSADOR 



AND OTHER 



ADDRESSES, 



BY 



HENRY VARLEY, 



WITH AN 



INTRODUCTION, BY REV. STEPHEN H. TYNG, Jr., D. D. 




i/frpyV/' 



WILLARD TRACT REPOSITORY, 

Beacon Hill Place, Boston. 

No. 239 Fourth Avenue, New York. 

Shaftesbury Hall, Toronto, Canada. 



Copyright. Charles Cullis. 1875. 



Stereotyped and Printed by T. R. Marvin & Son, 
Boston. 



INTRODUCTION 



>;*« 



ENRY VARLEY, the English evangelist, was 
born in Tattershall, Lincolnshire, England, in the 
year 1835. At the age of fifteen he was born 
again, of water and of the Spirit, under the ministrations 
of the Rev. Baptist Noel. Two years later he went to 
Australia, where he remained three years ; but during 
this period, though diligent in business, his fervent spirit 
was also intent on serving the Lord in the more direct 
methods of evangelistic work. On his return to London, 
however, the providence of God seemed to indicate that 
he should pursue for a time longer his secular avocation, 
(he had kept a meat-market in Australia,) and he em- 
braced the new business opportunity, not without many 
longings for employment more congenial to the new 
spirit and purpose that had filled his heart since the time 
of his conversion. He has often since that time found 
cause to thank the all-wise Master, that he was appointed 
to bear witness as a business man among business men, 

(iii) 



IV INTRODUCTION. 

to the transforming and supporting power of God's grace 
in the Gospel. 

About the year i860, Mr. Varley became specially 
interested in the Kensington Potteries School, of which 
he became Superintendent. His preaching there on 
Sunday evenings, led finally to the building of the West 
London Tabernacle, at St. James' Square, Nottinghill, 
which, from the time of its opening, was regularly filled 
by people anxious to listen to his interpretations of the 
Word of God. The church that grew out of these 
labors, is a practical embodiment of his belief, that true 
spiritual union is not the result of any denominational 
code, ritual, or polity, but rather the result of the Holy 
Spirit's work in every living member of Christ's body. 
Mr. Varley evidently believes in the unity of the Spirit, 
as maintained by the power and grace of God in the 
hearts of Christians, and cares but little for the minor 
diversities that characterize the real Church of Christ. 

His labors have been remarkable in two important 
respects. First, they have been the labors of a lay evan- 
gelist. He has presented himself to men as a Christian 
business man, too solicitous for their welfare in the life 
to come, to be selfishly and wholly absorbed in his own 
concerns in this. His well-known probity and simplicity 
in secular affairs, has emphasized his influence upon the 
platform. The hundreds of invitations that have poured 
in upon him from different parts of England during the 
last five years, are significant of a general need as well as 
of a popular demand. The people needed to hear the 



INTRODUCTION. V 

gospel according to the fresh conceptions of one of their 
own number; to hear just such a simple, direct exposi- 
tion of Scriptural truth as a tradesman, led by the Spirit 
of God, would make to his fellows. In the variety of 
ministrations ordained by God, the mission of the evan- 
gelist had been neglected ; and when the instrument was 
raised up by God, the opportunity for its use became 
suddenly manifest. 

The call for Mr. Varley's labors has also been attested 
by the most conclusive of all events, the blessing of God 
in the bringing of men to repentance and faith. On this 
one fact alone rests the complete justification of his 
course. Call it an exception, an innovation, provisional, 
— the answer is, "And believers were the more added to the 
Lord, multitudes both of men and women. " The work of 
this evangelist has been sealed by the outpouring of that 
Holy Spirit of promise, against the diverse operations of 
which no Christian may speak a word. Fearful indeed 
would be the responsibility of the Christian pastor who 
should say to such a messenger of Christ, I cannot bid 
you God-speed. 

Of Mr. Varley's recent visit to this country, I have 
scarcely left room to speak in terms befitting the cordial 
interest awakened in the minds of those ministerial 
brethren, of various denominations, who shared with me 
the opportunity of hearing him. The simplicity and 
directness of his expositions of Scripture, the vividness 
of his illustrations, the vigor of his personal appeals, 
may be judged of somewhat, by the contents of this 



Vi INTRODUCTION. 

volume ; but no reader can supply the impressions made 
by voice and manner, by emphasis and tone, and it was 
these impressions that gave insight as to his calm resting 
upon God for strength and guidance, and noble longing 
for success as a servant of Jesus Christ. That this beloved 
brother may never miss for one moment the abiding 
Christ, who has been his strength and glory thus far, is 
the prayer of his grateful fellow-worker in the gospel, 

S. H. Tyng, Jr. 
New York, November i, 1875. 




CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

Introduction, iii 

The Christian Ambassador, i 

The Sin of Unbelief, 17 

The Power of Faith, 36 

Christian Responsibility, 55 

Abiding in Christ, 69 

The Ministry of the Spirit, 87 

The Bread of Life, 104 

Nicodemus, 121 

Christ's Message to Peter, 135 

The Prodigal Son, 146 

The Twenty-third Psalm, 158 

(vii) 



Vlll CONTENTS. 

The Secret of Power, 167 

Thoughts, 179 

Christ Lifted Up, 190 

The Unjust Steward, 199 

The Seventh of Romans, 210 

The Epistle to the Hebrews, .... 223 




THE 

CHRISTIAN AMBASSADOR 



>;«M 



II CORINTHIANS v. 20. 

NOW THEN WE ARE AMBASSADORS FOR CHRIST, AS THOUGH GOD 
DID BESEECH YOU BY US : WE PRAY YOU IN CHRIST'S STEAD, 
BE YE RECONCILED TO GOD. 

1\ WILL deal first of all with the term here 
expressed by the word Ambassador. You all 
_i know an ambassador is one who is sent by the 
country wherein he dwells — usually some distin- 
guished man — to represent the court of the country 
from whence he comes to some neighboring nation. 
Observe this, we, in England, don't send an am- 
bassador to Canada from the Imperial Government, 
for the simple reason that Canada represents a 
colony. At present the world is under the rule of 
God's great opponent, the devil ; the world is not 
now subject to God, and will not be until Christ 
comes, whose right it is to reign ; meanwhile the 
Lord sends ambassadors. England sends ambas- 
sadors to France, Italy and Austria, on the very 



2 THE CHRISTIAN AMBASSADOR. 

ground that these are independent governments, 
and which are in turn represented by ambassadors 
so acting. 

Now, I want you to understand that I have no 
sympathy with distinctions among Christians. I 
don't want to do anything or assume any position 
that would lead one to suppose that I was separate 
from my fellow men. I do dislike anything that 
savors of what is expressed by the word Priest — in 
fact anything like affected superiority ; yet I gladly 
recognize the power for good of the great minds 
that have gone before, and I have listened to their 
majestic words ; and I thank God, nevertheless, 
that we have these treasures in earthen vessels, but 
the excellency of the power is of God and not of 
us. O how true is it said by one of our poets, that 
" one touch of nature makes the whole world kin." 
I thank God for trials ; to know what it is to buffet 
with vulgar manhood — and I have no small share 
in the busy scenes of our urgent London life — and 
more than all, I do thank God that He has put me 
in trust, and accepted me as an ambassador of 
Christ to speak to you to-night. 

I do affirm that I strive every morning in coming 
out of my room to pray that my commission be 
straight from the throne of God. My citizenship 
is neither Toronto nor London, it is heaven, accor- 
ding to the authority of that Word; therefore I 
have a perfect right to come down from the pres- 
ence of the great King, morning after morning, 
with the spirit of the better country marking my 
entire life, with the language of that country on my 



THE CHRISTIAN AMBASSADOR. -3 

tongue, with the laws of that country to administer 
wheresoever I can — to beseech my fellow men, 
or, as my text puts it, to "pray you in Christ's 
stead to be reconciled unto God" to-night. In all 
the earnest purpose of my soul, I come to you and 
tell you that I am an ambassador of the Great 
King. 

Earthly potentates may have their distinguished 
representatives, but oh, brethren, I do thank God 
that it is written, " Our sufficiency is of God." I 
come to act as one of His ambassadors ; my embas- 
sage is one of peace. I come to make known unto 
you, something of the laws of my royal Master — 
something of His feelings towards you. I come 
to tell you that He is no abstraction, living at an 
infinite distance from you, without any interest in 
your welfare. I come to bring the burden cf my 
embassage, and I thank His precious name that I 
may represent Him to you to-night in the character 
of the Father, whose boundless love is only co- 
extensive with eternity itself. 

Come with me to-night into yonder cottage, 
standing near the sea-coast. There sits working at 
her needle the form of a mother some fifty years of 
age. I approach her gently and lay my hand on 
her shoulder and say, " Sister, bear with a stranger 
speaking to you ; have you not a son ? " Oh, how 
my question stirs her heart ; how those poor blue 
eyes look out of their depths into mine. She says, 
" I have, do you know anything about him ? " I 
say, " Yes." This youth went away from his mother 
twenty years before, and well nigh broke that 



4 THE CHRISTIAN AMBASSADOR. 

mother's heart. How she has waited Ions for 
tidings of him. I want you to suppose that I could 
bring that boy from behind the door, and then you 
could fancy the thin arms of that mother being 
wrapt about him. Her affection is all engrossing. 
She does not ask, "Is my boy's character changed?" 
She does not wait for that, but sees him before his 
sin. My brethren, that is just what my great Lord 
does. He deprecates sin, yet Pie does not send me 
with an embassage of fault-finding to night. " If 
thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that 
saith to thee, Give Me to drink ; thou wouldest have 
asked of Him, and He would have given thee living 
water." 

An ambassador not only represents the court of 
his country, but represents also the commerce of 
that country. I am here to-night to represent the 
commerce of the blessed God, and I tell you He 
has loaded these hands with blessings and charged 
these lips with testimony concerning you. I pray 
Him to give me right words, and the power to 
properly speak and impress them upon your hearts. 
Great as my Master is, He is full of love, but sin is 
an abomination to Him. My brother, if you persist 
in drunkenness, if you persist in appetite, if you 
persist in the companionship of the harlot, if you 
persist in unbelief, or in keeping away from the 
love of God, the time is coming when your way- 
wardness will lead you to the brink of that fearful 
precipice, which will effectually shut you out from 
God, and bring about that terrible darkness in 



THE CHRISTIAN AMBASSADOR. 5 

which it shall be said, " My feet stumbled upon the 
dark mountains." 

Such a scene I have before me now. A young 
man — a member of our church — once came to me 
to go and see a man in distress of soul. I went. 
When I entered his room, he was walking about as 
though he had never been so strong in his life. 
Though scarcely understanding it, I questioned 
him about his soul's concern. He said, " I don't 
want to see you ; they tell me I am going to die. 
I won't die," and he paced about the room violently. 
But it was only too surely known by his relatives 
that he had contracted some terrible disease, and 
had come home with an affection of the throat 
which was actually choking him. The physicians 
said he could not live longer than two o'clock in 
the morning. He just went about the room half 
mad, shouting, " I won't die, I won't die," but death 
with his ominous finger beckoned him to the tomb, 
and at two o'clock he died ! 

Oh, beloved friends, it is a dreadful thing to trifle 
with sin. It was sin that brought Jesus Christ 
from His throne. He came to put it away. I tell 
you, brethren, that there is not a man, woman or 
child in this room to-night, for whom the Lord 
Jesus did not die. Then perhaps some one says, 
" If the Lord Jesus died for me I shall be saved ! " 
Not necessarily. Though Christ was a sacrifice 
for sin, yet I tell you that if you reject Him, His 
sacrifice cannot deal with that sin in its very nature. 
What you will be condemned for is this — not 
because you have been a drunkard, or unclean, but 



6 THE CHRISTIAN AMBASSADOR. 

the main count of the indictment will be, that 
though God offered you life in Christ, you spurned 
it contemptuously. He offered you a free and full 
pardon, an entire acquittal of your guilt, and you 
say, ' I care not for it, I would rather have my sin 
than God's testimony.' Oh, brethren, I would that 
many of you would wake up and thank God for 
sending the message of peace to us. Thanks be to 
God for His unspeakable gift. 

I come here to-night from my Father in heaven, 
with the gift of His own dear Son to you, and I 
want you to realize that you have a perfect right to 
Christ. I would say to the drunkard, " Here, take 
Christ as you are, take Him now." I never expect 
to see you turn away from sin until you get hold of 
Christ. There is not a man here that I would ask 
to give up the seeming and false pleasures of the 
world until the Spirit of the Lord has rested upon 
him. May you receive Him into your hearts to- 
night, and He will break the bonds that bind you, 
and set you free. They smiled at me one evening 
in Shaftesbury Hall, when I mentioned an incident 
about a street-crossing sweeper in Dublin. A 
solicitor came to him one day, and looking into his 
face, asked if his name was so and so. The sweeper 
replied it was. "Then," said the lawyer, "a client 
of ours has died and left you twenty thousand 
pounds." The sweeper immediately flung the 
broom over to the farther side of the street, and 
said he would never use it any more. I want you 
to lay hold of Christ, and then you can fling away 
your sins and not until then. He exhorts you to 



THE CHRISTIAN AMBASSADOR. 7 

come to Him. Mark these words : " To wit, that 
God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto 
Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them ; 
and hath committed unto us the word of recon- 
ciliation." 

Here, brethren, bear with me. You will find 
numbers of men in this city who speak about the 
doctrine of Christ as though it was some bloody 
sacrifice. They scoff at the glorious doctrine of 
the atonement — the great central lesson of the 
New Testament. God was the sufferer. Mark 
what I say. He it was who endured the wrath — it 
was He who magnified the law and made it honor- 
able. Mark what St. Paul says in Acts, 20th chap- 
ter, " Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to 
all the flock, over which the Holy Ghost hath made 
you overseers, to feed the church of God, which He 
hath purchased with His own blood." Oh, brethren, 
again I entreat you to remember it was the Father 
in the Son. What! Vindicating a wrong — the 
crucifixion was an outrage on the principles of 
justice! No, Sir. Suppose that I have committed 
some terrible crime in Canada, and as the result of 
that crime I had to forfeit my life. I am lying in 
one of your prisons under sentence of death. You 
could understand our beloved Queen, with her 
womanly heart full of pitying love towards me, as 
one of her subjects, — and the Prince of Wales 
sharing that love, — on his royal mother's behalf 
delaying the execution of the sentence. He says, 
" Next to the Queen I am the embodiment of the 
law, by virtue of my position as chiefest magistrate. 



8 THE CHRISTIAN AMBASSADOR. 

Now I am prepared to take the place of my subject, 
let me die, that poor Henry Varley may go free. 
Let the law take effect on me." 

The Prince of Wales dying for me is substantially 
the death accepted in the place of my own. Behold 
the man loved by his prince to this extent that he 
died for him. See the law magnified in the person 
of him who is its chief representative. And even 
so, the Lord Jesus Christ, the great representative 
of the law, has come from heaven, and in His own 
body bore our sins on the tree. Receive this testi- 
mony, for it is your birthright — receive it, for it is 
liberty to the captive. It is the opening of the 
prison doors to them that are bound. Is Jesus 
Christ going to die for you ? No, you answer, His 
death is an accomplished fact. If you believe to- 
night that Jesus died for you, sing aloud, shout and 
say, " I am made free by the death of my Prince," 
and then, walking with your head erect, you say, 
" Put me, if you will, in that condemned cell and 
put chains on my legs, I don't care, I have a 
reprieve in the Queen's name;" and I will say to 
the jailor, " Knock off those manacles, unloosen 
that door, I won't stop here." "But you are a 
criminal!" "Never mind, I have a reprieve, here 
it is." " Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, 
as though God did beseech you by us, be ye 
reconciled to God." 

Oh, my dear brethren, remember that sin is put 
away by the sacrifice of Christ. Oh, brother, be- 
lieve it ; sinner, receive it. Christ Jesus has died, 
and you and I who believe in Him are free. Mark 



THE CHRISTIAN AMBASSADOR. 9 

you, the gospel does not tell you to go and break 
off some habit that you are powerless to control 
until you have the Saviour's power in your heart. 
My brother, I would not cheat you — take Christ ; 
for the Spirit of my Master says He came to give 
liberty to the captive and unbar the prison doors. 
Do we, I wonder, regard sufficiently the awfulness 
of the gospel truth wherein we are told that the 
final day will witness those who reject Christ con- 
demned, and those who believe on Him accepted 
and saved ! Faith in Christ will break forever that 
association with Adam, so that you can take your 
place and say, ' I am not under the dominion of the 
law, I am united to Christ, and just as surely as 
Christ lives, I shall live also.' 

The man who makes Christianity a mere system 
of morals, confesses his want of faith in the gospel, 
for " if any man be in Christ he is a new creature, 
old things have passed away and behold all things 
have become new." Suppose a man in business in 
this city gets into difficulties and is forced to call 
his creditors together, and in the height of his 
perplexity a friend turns up, who not only volun- 
teers to pay every farthing, but supplies fresh capi- 
tal to start again. So long as these creditors have 
been paid, no matter by whom, that business man 
can go out into the streets and no creditor can say a 
word. Now, if sin comes and enters a claim, or if 
death comes and says, " I have a claim upon you," 
I say death is dishonest. Listen to Christ's own 
words, " I am the resurrection and the life : He that 
believeth on Me, though he were dead, yet shall he 



IO THE CHRISTIAN AMBASSADOR. 

live, and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall 
never die." 

Let me venture to read to you a letter that I 
brought with me from England, written by a physi- 
cian who lives in Boston, Lincolnshire. "My dear 
Sir : — I presume you are accustomed to receive 
letters from persons about whom you know very 
little. From the very brief interview I had with 
you, I cannot think that you will remember me, 
but I feel it to be my duty to tell you what great 
things the Lord has done for me, and how greatly 
He has blessed your ministrations unto me. I came 
home to Boston about two months ago, thoroughly 
broken down through repeated failures, and for 
fourteen years I have been struggling with appetite 
and an insatiable thirst for alcoholic drinks. I fell 
into that powerlessness that possesses one who is 
addicted to intemperate habits. Many times I 
thought I would be free, and signed pledges, formed 
resolutions, made promises — in fact all the useless 
and lame methods to free myself from the power of 
the enemy I had adopted. Some eight years ago I 
went away to South Africa, where I hoped to 
reform my habits, but all to no purpose. Time 
would fail me to tell you the experiences of the 
last fifteen years. . . . How I remember a sermon 
that you preached from these words : ' I am cruci- 
fied with Christ ; nevertheless I live, yet not I, but 
Christ liveth in me ; and the life which I now live 
in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, 
who loved me and gave Himself for me.' So 
through God's Spirit I was brought to Him. My 



THE CHRISTIAN AMBASSADOR. II 

heart from that day to this has experienced almost 
uninterrupted peace and joy such as I never knew 
before." 

This freedom is open for all, inasmuch as Christ 
died for all. I am not going to ask you to reform 
yourselves. I have seen enough of that miserable 
failure. " Therefore if any man be in Christ he is 
a new creature ; old things are passed away, behold 
all things are become new." The reason that many 
a man is full of prejudice against the gospel, is just 
because his understanding is utterly in the dark 
about it. Some think that to be a Christian is to 
take hold of a system of morals which will be 
constantly restraining him in his life. It is nothing 
of the kind. It is a great, generous life inside you, 
which developes when you become a believer in 
Christ. " We are ambassadors for Christ, as though 
God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's 
stead be ye reconciled to God." 

When in Dublin, some three years ago, a young 
man came to me and said, " Dear Sir, I am so glad 
to see you ; last time you were here, only a few 
months ago, I experienced the great pass." I said, 
"What do you mean?" He then repeated the 
twenty-fourth verse, fifth chapter of John, " Verily, 
verily, I say unto you, he that heareth My word and 
believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting 
life and shall not come into condemnation, but is 
passed from death unto life. ,y He said, "That is 
the great pass I refer to, sir." Like the friend 
who not only pays your debts but backs you with 
half a million dollars to live upon, the Lord is not 



12 THE CHRISTIAN AMBASSADOR. 

only merciful to you in putting away your sins — 
He is not only doing that, but He is giving you 
new life. It is not a little brief time of thirty, fifty 
or seventy uncertain years before us, but it is the 
great Master who upholds-yonder sun and has kept 
it full of light for sixty thousand years — perhaps 
six hundred thousand years, for all I know. Christ 
is omniscient, the Christian's beacon. " The Lord 
is my light and my salvation." 

There is not a young man here to-night, I don't 
care how ignorant or stupid he may be, who, if 
he accept the message of the Master, may not join 
the holy throng of ransomed spirits. I bring you 
the free gift of God, without money and without 
price. He can wrap up His influence for good in 
your hearts, just as He can wrap up an oak in an 
acorn. The Christianity of the Gospel compels a 
man to say, "I have done with anxiety, for I know 
the Lord will never forsake me." The idea of sane 
men daring to affirm that they can get more out 
of other things than they can get out of Christ ! 
Remember, salvation is God's gift — not a poor 
uncertain thing, fraught with all the doubts that 
beset human affairs ! Oh, the joy that is in store 
for sinners everywhere, if they would only ac- 
cept of it. I know a young man in London, that 
came into a meeting of Christians, and was 
astounded at the genial and generous life main- 
tained. He had imagined a life without energy, 
without activity, but did not find it so. Oh, beloved 
brethren, I beg of you to disabuse your minds of 



THE CHRISTIAN AMBASSADOR. 1 3 

that false idea of Christianity and choose the better 
part at once. 

Oh, that I had the power of entering into this as 
though God did beseech you, and so that God 
would uplift the veil of darkness from your eyes 
that you might see the phases of His character. 
God's omnipresence allows the whole mechanism of 
the material universe to go on. I have sometimes 
believed that one reason that God has put the ma- 
terial universe under laws from which there is no 
appeal, save by His sovereign power, is, that He 
may have His hands free for the needs of the great 
family of men, and diffuse the great energies of His 
power for the benefit of the human race. Perhaps 
some of you are like others that I have known, just 
a bundle of dogmas, instead of recognizing over and 
above all these, the glorious foundation of life. Get 
out of this wretched road and go in yonder, that 
you may understand the meaning of what He said 
to the woman at the well, " Whosoever drinketh of 
this water, shall thirst again ; but whosoever drink- 
eth of the water that I shall give him shall never 
thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall be 
in him a well of water springing up into everlasting 
life." 

My Master cannot bear that you should die. 
Again I repeat to you — perhaps the largest 
assembly of young men ever brought together in 
Canada — why will you turn a deaf ear to His 
entreaties ? Brethren, I lose sight of myself, for- 
getting any other than the great King — He be- 
seeches you, by that uplifted Christ, why will ye 
2 



14 THE CHRISTIAN AMBASSADOR. 

die ! He asks you to come and believe. If God 
had said to me, " Henry Varley, I must make a 
condition of moral excellence," there would have 
been the devil's saving clause. Don't let the devil 
cheat you — he is ever watching for plausible ex- 
cuses. Have faith in God and exercise it. You 
take a cheque from a merchant on the faith that 
funds are provided for it. At the table you have 
implicit faith that the cook has not poisoned the 
food. I am going to Niagara to-morrow ; what 
if I should say to the man of whom I buy my ticket, 
" I won't have it, for I have no faith that this line 
leads to Niagara." Sincere reliance upon God's 
promises and consistent observance of His laws, 
will ensure the kingdom of heaven. I care not of 
what color or nationality you may be, — God is just 
and the justifier of him that believes in Christ 
Jesus. A believer in Jesus is a man that is not 
condemned. Ah, my brethren, there is such a 
depth of love that we cannot know much about it. 
Oh, that I could get my little cup full, deep in the 
great ocean of His love. 

Oh, that you had known this day of visitation and 
this day of grace, when the offer of complete pardon 
from the Throne of Grace is put into your hands — 
when the offer of the boundless love of Christ is 
given to you without money and without price. We 
pray you in Christ's stead, that you may not reject 
His offer. He knows what an awful hell you are 
meriting by your sin. The Saviour pleads with 
you and for you, and sheds His benign influence 
over transgressing humanity like crystal streams 



THE CHRISTIAN AMBASSADOR. 1 5 

that radiate from a fountain. The sacred stream 
of His power puts out the fever fires of sin. Oh ! 
but this water of life is refreshing, cleansing and 
purifying ; take it, accept this blessed river that 
God gives to His people, as it comes rippling from 
the hill-sides of Jehovah's boundless love — a lit 
emblem of Jesus. I charge you reject it not. Un- 
burden your souls to the Redeemer, and listen to 
His pleading through His weak servant who will 
soon leave you. The ambassador leaves you, but 
you have many zealous, earnest brethren among 
you, to whom I hope you will confide your souls' 
burdens. There is a time in the history of nations, 
when a declaration of war is made and the with- 
drawal of the ambassador immediately precedes the 
appeal to arms. I believe, if this Word is true, that 
we are on the eve of the withdrawal of His ambas- 
sadors, and then you know what follows. In that 
dark hour there will be none to speak of the love 
of Jesus — the ambassadors will be withdrawn. 

Oh God, again I cry on behalf of my indifferent 
brethren ; Thou knowest our yearning hearts can- 
not bear the rejection of Christ; Thou knowest 
that indifference and delay are fatal. Do Thou 
awaken the careless, arouse the slumberer, and 
warn the scoffer. I hope I have only spoken in 
your city as one in earnest. Mark you yonder 
glaring red light on the prairie — it is on fire. 
Would you account me a fool because I warn the 
occupant of that wooden building of his danger — 
because I say, Fight fire with fire, as he gathers and 
fires a circle of grass about him, and when the 



l6 THE CHRISTIAN AMBASSADOR. 

devouring fiend comes on he passes unscathed 
through it all ! Just so, I come to warn you as an 
ambassador from God. I have seen something of 
the glory of heaven and heard the swell of its 
rapturous music, where former things have passed 
away, where sin is not and where death has no 
place. " Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, 
as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you 
in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God." When 
once you have accepted the message and yielded to 
the entreaty of the ambassadors, the vital force of 
Christ's love will shield you against the common 
enemy, and cause a warm and generous blood to 
start through the veins of that system, no longer 
weak, but strong. May the lessons of other men's 
lives and the solemn inj unctions once more repeated, 
sink deeper and deeper into your hearts, and bear 
fruit in a purer life and increased devotion to the 
Saviour, for Christ's sake. Amen. 



^ 



(L 




THE 



SIN OF UNBELIEF 



>X^c 



HEBREWS in. 18. 

AND TO WHOM SWARE HE THAT THEY SHOULD NOT ENTER INTO 
HIS REST, BUT TO THEM THAT BELIEVED NOT? 




'E are called in the Scripture, " The children 
of faith," or, " the children of the promise," 
our only heritage being that of " the ex- 
ceeding great and precious promises." The Chris- 
tian differs from the worldling in this respect, that 
while the worldling lives upon himself and upon 
the things by which he is surrounded, the Christian 
believes that " man shall not live by bread alone, 
but by every word that proceedeth out of the 
mouth of God." Hence, it is of the highest impor- 
tance to us to be constantly listening to what the 
Lord says : and if, as the liturgy of the Church of 
England so beautifully expresses it, w r e do " mark, 
learn, and inwardly digest" the word, we shall have 
realized in us the fulfillment of that beautiful verse, 
the second of the fifty-fifth chapter of Isaiah. You 
(17) 



1 8 THE SIN OF UNBELIEF. 

will observe that the Lord is here speaking to His 
children, " Hearken diligently unto Me, and eat ye 
that which is good, and let your soul delight itself 
in fatness." Now, that is just one of many striking 
passages I might give, illustrative of our position 
as " the children of promise." Practically, our life 
is a feeding upon the truth of God, from morning to 
night, and he most fully carries out this idea who 
can say, " I have esteemed the words of Thy mouth 
more than my necessary food." 

By way of illustration, let me suppose that 
instead of standing before you in physical vigor 
and health, I were emaciated and feeble. I can 
understand your kind expressions of regret at my 
apparent weakness. I account for it by telling you 
that for a week I have not tasted food. Why, you 
would immediately regret that you had not known 
of my necessities, which you would have hastened 
to relieve. " Oh ! " I should say, " there was abun- 
dance before me, but I did not choose to eat." 
Then your sympathy would be changed into de- 
served censure. Now, I believe that to be the 
case with numbers of Christians to-day ; there is 
plenty provided, but they will not take it ; and let 
mc say to you, if you practically set aside the eating 
of this bread, — the Word of God, — as the Lord 
liveth, you will spend your years saying, " My lean- 
ness, my leanness." 

And now, let me show you, that when we are 
converted to God, faith begins to work. "Trust," 
in the Old Testament, and " faith," in the New 
Testament, are synonymous terms. " They that 



THE SIN OF UNBELIEF. 19 

trust in the Lord, shall be as Mount Zion, which 
may not be removed, but standeth fast for ever." 
That will give you the Old Testament testimony to 
the importance of this principle, which God sets in 
operation in our souls when we are first converted ; 
and I press this upon you, because there is danger 
of forgetting that the same principle of faith which 
enabled us to apprehend Jesus, as our Saviour, is 
to be the capital with which we are ever after to 
work. Faith is to be exercised all along the line 
of our life. Its best analogy I believe is found in 
the act of breathing. If this be suspended for any 
lengthened period in the natural body, death en- 
sues ; and the spiritual life can only be maintained 
by faith ; for " The just shall live by faith." 

The opposite of faith is unbelief, and I want now 
to show you the importance of crushing out this 
terrible sin. A brother minister observed to me, 
during a conference we were holding in London : — 
" One thing is evident ; that numbers of you seem, 
within a few months, to have come into possession 
of a great accession of spiritual power. I am full 
of interest on this subject. I long for it, need it, 
and see what an advantage it would be to me ; but 
what am I to do ? " My reply was, " Exercise faith 
in God." " Well, what do you mean by that ? " 
u Simply," I replied, " that, at this very moment, 
you believe that you really have all that God has 
promised in Christ, — fullness of joy, fullness cf the 
Holy Ghost, — in a word, all that is comprehended 
in ' God's unspeakable gift,' because He makes no 
reservation." He answered, " I don't feel that; I 



20 THE SIN OF UNBELIEF. 

feel as empty as possible." " For that very reason," 
said I, " clo I ask you to exercise faith. You have 
been for years pleading with awakened souls to 
look away from their own feelings, and trust to 
God's stated fact of Christ as their Saviour, and to 
turn away from the process of introspection and 
self-examination, and believe God's word ; and now 
that I ask you to turn away from feelings, and 
believe that you have all fullness of joy and peace 
in Christ, you refuse. It is the old sin, the mon- 
strous sin of unbelief." 

I spoke strongly as I do now to you, because for 
years I myself looked on this terrible sin as my 
infirmity, thinking I was to be pitied for it ; where- 
as, now I view it as that from which I would recoil 
with the same horror as from drunkenness. Bear 
with me, when I say you have no business to con- 
tinue under the control of this sin ; no right to 
indulge it. It is the parent of all other sin, and 
must ever be placed in the front of offending, as a 
thing to be intensely hated. I was very much 
struck with an illustration of this which I heard 
lately. A youth, the son of a farmer, was in the 
habit of jumping across a brook which separated a 
certain field from the house ; on one occasion, 
coming with a rapid run to this brook, the rapidity 
of his pace prevented his seeing, until too late to 
stop himself, a black snake coiled up at his feet. 
He trod on it, and as it was providentially asleep, 
he reached the other side in safety ; but never 
could he forget the horror of feeling the cold slime 
of the reptile against his bare foot. He said : u I 



THE SIN OF UNBELIEF. 21 

cried, God help me/' And so, let each of us say, 
" God help us from this awful sin." 

I have no hope as touching the enlargement 
of your souls, until this sin is dealt with. Now, 
nothing can be more important than to have the 
testimony of God's word on this point ; and I 
think, that in the experience of the children of 
Israel, we have the strongest illustration of the 
terrible power of unbelief. This it was which kept 
the children of Israel forty years out of their pro- 
mised inheritance. Their toilsome wanderings had 
formed no part of God's plan. No ; redemption 
from the house of bondage was immediately to be 
supplemented by entrance into Canaan. It had 
not been God's design to let their carcases fall in 
the wilderness, until every man of that unbelieving 
generation had perished. I remember hearing a 
sermon, in which it was said that the children of 
Israel, being little better than slaves when they left 
Egypt, required the forty years in the wilderness 
to prepare them for the promised land ; missing 
altogether the important point, that they actually 
sank into dishonored graves, so that only their 
children went into the land. 

When this first engaged my attention, I cannot 
tell you the wondrous blessing it was to me. Let 
mc substantiate this serious statement from the 
word of God. First, turn to the seventy-eighth 
Psalm, and read it carefully. In the fourth verse 
note, " We will not hide them," speaking of the 
things of God, " from their children, showing to the 
generation to come, the praises of the Lord, and 



22 THE SIN OF UNBELIEF. 

His strength, and His wonderful works that He 
hath done." Again, at the seventh verse, " That 
they might set their hope in God, and not forget 
the works of God, but keep His commandments." 
In the tenth verse, "They kept not the covenant of 
God, and refused to walk in His law ; and forgat 
His works, and His wonders that He had showed 
them. Marvellous things did He in the sight of 
their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of 
Zoan." And so on, to the end of the Psalm. And 
again, I ask you to read the one hundred and sixth 
Psalm, from beginning to end, as a further proof of 
the abomination of the sin of unbelief. 

Come back with me now, to the book of Num- 
bers, where you will find such testimony as, I pray 
God, may prove to many the life-long blessing it 
was to me. In the thirteenth and fourteenth chap- 
ters of that book you will find these words* : — 
"And Moses sent them" (the heads of the tribes) 
" to spy out the land of Canaan, and said unto 
them, Get you up this way southward, and go up 
into the mountain: and see the land, what it is; 
and the people that dwelleth therein, whether they 
be strong or weak, few or many ; and what the land 
is that they dwell in, whether it be good or bad ; 
and what cities they be that they dwell in, whether 
in tents, or in strong holds ; and what the land is, 
whether it be fat or lean, whether there be wood 
therein, or not. And be ye of good courage, and 
bring of the fruit of the land." Now, you may 
form some idea of the terrible straits to which 

* Chapter 13, verse 17. 



THE SIN OF UNBELIEF. 23 

Moses, the servant of God, was reduced, when he 
had to put these particulars before these men, in 
order to induce them to go and spy out the land. 
God had promised it to them, — He had said it was 
a land flowing with milk and honey, yet they 
" thought scorn of that pleasant land." Then ob- 
serve, " And they returned from searching of the 
land after forty days. And they went and came to 
Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation 
of the children of Israel, * * * and brought back 
word unto .them, and unto all the congregation, 
and showed them the fruit of the land. And they 
told him, and said, We came unto the land whither 
thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and 
honey ; and this is the fruit of it. Nevertheless the 
people be strong that dwell in the land, and the 
cities are walled, and very great ; and moreover we 
saw the children of Anak there. * * * And Caleb 
stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go 
up at once, and possess it, for we are well able to 
overcome it." 

I should not wonder if there were some here to- 
day who, in speaking of the abundance of blessing 
in what is sometimes called, (though I do not like 
the phrase,) the higher Christian life, would say to 
me, " There are difficulties in the way that cannot 
be overcome." So said unbelief concerning Canaan. 
So said not faith ! Faith said, and it says to-day, 
" Let us go up and possess it, for we are well able 
to overcome it." " But the men that went up with 
him said, We be not able to go up against the 
people ; for they are stronger than we." That is 



24 THE SIN OF UNBELIEF. 

the mischief. So long as you believe your spiritual 
enemies are stronger than you are, so long you 
must be depressed and brought down ; so long as 
you do not sing faith's triumphant song, ' Greater 
is He that is on our part, than all that are against 
us,' you must know this miserable depression. 
And now notice one of the grandest statements 
ever made in proof of the miserableness of unbelief. 
" They brought up an evil report of the land which 
they had searched, unto the children of Israel, say- 
ing, The land, through which we have gone to 
search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants 
thereof ; and all the people that we saw in it, are 
men of a great stature." They did not hesitate to 
tell a lie in the presence of God. "And there we 
saw the giants." Of course; — unbelief is always 
seeing them ; did you ever know an unbeliever who 
was not looking at giants? "The sons of Anak, 
which come of the giants, and we were," — I com- 
mend to you, and especially to my clerical brethren, 
this last clause, "And we were, in our own sight, 
as grasshoppers." I do not object to that, — the 
smaller w r e are in our own sight the better, — but 
then comes the cowardice of unbelief, "And so we 
were in their sight." Not only have they a lowly 
estimate of themselves, but they voluntarily go 
over to the enemies' side. "And so we were in 
their sight." Oh ! let us be careful of this abomin- 
able sin of unbelief. 

Now, look at the fourteenth chapter, twenty- 
second verse, " Because all those men which have 
seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in 



THE SIN OF UNBELIEF. 25 

Egypt, and in the wilderness, and have tempted me 
now these ten times, and have not hearkened unto 
my voice," — look at God's forbearance there, — 
"these ten times." Now I want you thoughtfully 
to notice that these words were spoken not fifteen 
months after the redemption from Egypt, — " Sure- 
ly they shall not see the land which I sware unto 
their fathers, neither shall any of them that pro- 
voked me see it ; but my servant Caleb, because he 
had another spirit with him, and hath followed me 
fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he 
went ; and his seed shall possess it. * * * And the 
Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, 
How Ions: shall I bear with this evil congregation, 
which murmur against Me? I have heard the 
murmurings of the children of Israel, which they 
murmur against me. Say unto them," — Oh ! if I 
am speaking to unbelieving Christians here, I would 
repeat it in God's name to every one of you in 
solemn, tender, brotherly affection, — "Your car- 
cases shall fall in this wilderness, and all that were 
numbered of you, according to your whole number, 
from twenty years old and upward, which have 
murmured against me, doubtless ye shall not come 
into the land, concerning which I sware to make 
you dwell therein, save Caleb, the son of Jephun- 
neh, and Joshua the son of Nun. But your little 
ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I 
bring in, and they shall know the land which ye 
have despised. But as for you, your carcases^ 
they shall fall in this wilderness. And your chil- 
dren shall wander in the wilderness forty years, 

2* 



26 THE SIN OF UNBELIEF. 

and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be 
wasted in the wilderness. After the number of 
the days in which ye searched the land, even forty 
days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniqui- 
ties, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach 
of promise," or, as it is in the margin, " the alter- 
ing of my purpose." 

Again, I say, God had never designed that this 
redeemed people should die in the wilderness. 
Now, why do I press this ? Because, beloved 
friends, that land of Canaan, the land flowing with 
milk and honey, was not typical of heaven only, or 
primarily. It typifies our life in Christ. We enter 
into Him, as into our land of promise, and we find 
it a land that yields its supplies without labor on 
our part. Mark this, — it is a land that flows with 
milk and honey. Entering into it, we may say, " I 
have all, and abound, being full." ' My God hath 
supplied all my need.' We grasp the title-deed of 
the Eternal One, and say, " All things are mine, 
for I am Christ's, and Christ is God's." Oh ! 
beloved friends, let not this abominable sin of 
unbelief continue to wither, blight and curse your 
characters, until, perchance, it may be said of you 
as of the Corinthians, " For this cause many are 
weak and sickly among you, and many sleep." I 
think, of all the desperate sins which the child of 
God can commit, the worst is to go on disbelieving 
God. To illustrate: I fancy my eldest boy, — a 
youth of fifteen, now in India, but soon to return, — 
I fancy him entering my study and saying, " I am 
sorry, father, to tell you, but I really cannot believe 



THE SIN OF UNBELIEF. 2J 

a word you say. I know it is my infirmity, and 
you will pity, not blame me for it." Think how 
such language would wound a father's heart ! Oh ! 
brethren, in the Master's name I beseech you be 
believing believers of every Word of God. 

And now let us notice another verse or two. In 
the thirty-fifth verse of this chapter, u I the Lord 
have said, I will surely do it unto all this evil congre- 
gation, that are gathered together against me ; in 
this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there 
shall they die ; " and this because they brought an 
evil report of that land. I think of our Father 
coming quietly to each of us, as we sit here, and 
saying, " My child, are you satisfied with Jesus ? At 
an infinite cost to Myself I sent Him, with His beau- 
tiful, magnificent life. I gave it you out of the full- 
ness of this boundless love of Mine. Are you satis- 
fied with it ? Do you find its dignity suitable to 
you ? Does its sweetness permeate your whole 
being ? Does it make your home-life beautiful ? 
Is it a calm, peaceful, gentle lif^ helping you to 
suffer long, and be kind ? Are you slow to receive 
evil thoughts ? Do you find that the instincts of 
that life in you, lead to this : ' Seeing ye have puri- 
fied your souls in obeying the truth, through the 
Spirit, unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that 
ye love one another with a pure heart fervently.' " 
Does that great, dignified life permeate with its 
excellence every part of your being ? For it is 
written, ' He that believeth on me, out of his belly 
shall flow rivers of living water.' I would call 
your attention, before I have done, to the testi- 



28 THE SIN OF UNBELIEF. 

mony found in the Epistle to the Hebrews on this 
very point. In the third chapter and seventh verse 
you will find these words : " Wherefore, as the 
Holy Ghost saith, To-day, if ye will hear His voice ; " 
and I want you to notice that expression, " to-day," 
for, I think, it occurs no less than six or seven 
times in the next few verses. It is as though our 
Father should say to us, " My children, you have 
disbelieved me until now, but to-day, if you will 
hear my voice, I will obliterate the past." 

May He thus speak with power to many among 
us now. " Harden not your hearts, as in the provo- 
cation" What ! my dear friends, shall we call the 
forty years in the wilderness God's design ! He 
sets aside the idea by that one significant word, 
"provocation," that is what He calls it, "the pro- 
voking," " the day of temptation in the wilderness, 
when your fathers tempted me, proved me, and 
saw my works forty years. Wherefore, I was 
grieved with that generation, and said, They do 
alway err in their, heart ; and they have not known 
my ways. So" I sware in my wrath," — less than 
eighteen months after their redemption from Egypt 
the Eternal God * sware in His wrath that they 
should not enter into His rest,' and they did not! 
Their carcases fell in the wilderness. W 7 hy, for 
years, I thought I must reproduce in my individual 
experience, that of the children of Israel ; that I 
was bound to have ups and downs, patches of sand, 
green oases ; a time of sterility and a time of prayer- 
fullness ; the hour of cold and the hour of heat. 
Oh ! it is hiffh time that we search in the records 



THE SIN OF UNBELIEF. 29 

of God's word and see whether indeed "these 
things be so." 

Now, listen : " Take heed, brethren, lest there 
be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in 
departing from the living God." Many Christians 
speak about their hearts as still being "deceitful 
above all things, and desperately wicked." I can- 
not join them. What ! shall God give me a new 
heart and a right spirit, yea, a new life in Christ, 
and shall I have a vision of my soul as filled with 
the corrupt evil thing that has passed away ? No, 
brethren, it is not true. As well might you say 
that the new life God has given you is a poor, 
dwarfed, diseased thing. I pray you, do not thus 
dishonor Him. Many Christians think of their 
spiritual life as of a diseased thing, which, after 
years and years, is, by a sort of purging process, to 
be purified. It is not so, — liable to wander, we 
may be, — not prone. 

Shall I insult my Lord by saying that after 
getting possession of the new heart, — after the 
stony heart is taken away, — I still have a heart 
that cannot believe Him, that is always departing 
from Him ? Listen, brethren : In the clay of our 
conversion we had entrance into the holiest cf all, 
by the blood of Jesus : but by all the solemn testi- 
mony of that word you and I have never had 
liberty to go out again forever. If wc do, it is a 
voluntary act — a deliberate sin. Do not talk of 
approaching unto God, — " Yc are come," says the 
Apostle, " to the Father." I beg of you go no 
more away forever. 



30 THE SIN OF UNBELIEF. 

And now, just one or two other verses, and I 
have done. " But exhort one another daily, while 
it is called to-day," — is not that beautiful, "to-day." 
Again, " Lest any of you be hardened through the 
deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers 
of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confi- 
dence steadfast unto the end." There is the life of 
faith, you see, — not a principle in operation and 
then laid aside, — but kept in continual operation, 
always, always in use. Then look at this : " While 
it is said, ' to-day.' " Oh ! I press that " to-day " 
upon you, as if God could not bear this night of 
unbelief to set in, with its dense darkness. " To- 
day, if ye will hear His voice, harden not your 
hearts, as in the provocation. For some, when 
they had heard, did provoke : howbeit not all that 
came out of Egypt by Moses. But with whom was 
He grieved forty years ? Was it not with them 
that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilder- 
ness ? And to whom sware He that they should 
not enter into His rest, but to them that believed 
not ? So we see that they could not enter in, 
because of unbelief." Let me remind every child 
of God here of this solemn thought — God cannot 
believe for you, — belief must be your own act. I 
would that you might grasp the idea of Paul in the 
Acts : " In Him we live, and move, and have our 
being." Not physically, only, but in the length, 
breadth, depth and height of our spiritual life. 
And now see the first verse of the fourth chapter 
of Hebrews: "Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise 
being left us of entering into His rest, any of you 



THE SIN OF UNBELIEF. 3 1 

should seem to come short of it. For unto us was 
the gospel preached, as well as unto them ; but the 
word preached did not profit them, not being mixed 
with faith in them that heard it. For we which 
have believed, do enter into rest." Bless God for 
the rest of faith ! It is no chimera, no empty 
dream, — it is the calm rest of the soul upon the 
Eternal Lord, — it is the very antithesis of pride, 
it cannot live in the atmosphere of presumption. 
Mark what I say, — all boasting is excluded. By 
what ? The law of works ? Nay, but by the law 
of faith. 

Brethren, it was this horrid sin of unbelief that 
broke off the Jews from their own olive tree. 
" Thou standest by faith." Oh, God, keep us from 
unbelief ! Child of God, never for a moment har- 
bor the thought that God is absent from thee. 
Hath He not said, " I will never leave thee, I will 
never forsake thee." Remember that wonderful 
expression in second Corinthians, ninth chapter, 
eleventh verse, "Being enriched in everything, to 
all bountifulness, which causeth through us thanks- 
giving to God." That is faith's language, — not 
"going to be enriched," but " being enriched." It 
is this unbelief which shuts God entirely out of 
great departments of our being, making a hundred 
weight of trouble become a ton ; building prospec- 
tive sorrows, nine-tenths of which never come to 
pass at all. And shall it always be thus ? Are we 
never to form the holy habit of faith in God ? This 
phrase, " holy habit," was a new thought to me, 
until presented to me lately by a brother in Eng- 



32 THE SIN OF UNBELIEF. 

land, and I then saw that by it the coming of 
unbelief to the front was prevented. I pray you 
cultivate this habit of faith. Vitiate not God's 
promises, — stagger not at seeming impossibilities. 
I bless God for that word used of Abraham, " He 
staggered not." There was enough to have seem- 
ingly excused it in him ; but God had promised, 
and that was enough. 'Through faith they sub- 
dued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, stopped the 
mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire ; out 
of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in 
fight, turned to flight the armies of aliens/ The 
same principle ; and, again I remind you, these two 
opposite principles cannot dominate at the same 
time. No, no, no ! 

Let me leave with you one illustration of the 
power of this. You will find it at the beginning 
of the sixth chapter of the Second Corinthians. 
" We then, as workers together with God, beseech 
you, that ye receive not the grace of God in vain ; 
for He saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, 
and in the day of salvation have I succored thee : 
behold, now is the accepted time ; behold, now is 
the day of salvation." The reference here is to the 
exalted Christ, out of whose fullness the entire 
Church has received, not according to our moral 
fitness, but according to His grace. Now listen : 
" Giving no offence in anything, that the ministry 
be not blamed." This is what the life of faith says, 
and I feel disposed to ask, — Tell me, Paul, we are 
fellow-servants in the kingdom of our Lord ; do 
you mean, that in your life, so full of anxiety and 



THE SIN OF UNBELIEF. 33 

trial, and what we call emergency, is this your daily 
rule ? 

He speaks again in the fourth verse, " But in all 
things approving ourselves as the ministers of 
God." Do you mean that ? Am I to accept this 
double expression of yours ? Yes, replies the Apos- 
tle : " in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in 
stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in 
watchings, in fastings." Why, do you mean, that 
in the midst of these circumstances, this mass of 
trying ordeals, — ten of them mentioned, — and each 
one seeming to me enough to break down the 
strongest spirit, you affirm that you acquit yourself 
without blame ? Oh ! let me know how it is done. 
Here, the majority of us are beaten back by circum- 
stances ; do show us the secret of it ! 

In the next two verses, he takes us as it were 
into the very engine room. Being in Aberdeen 
some time since, I went into the granite works, and 
saw hundreds of belts going in every direction, and 
the saws working away at the granite. I asked 
how long it would take to cut through one particular 
block, and was told, four months of constant sawing, 
" Where is your power ? " said I. He took me into 
a place called the engine-house, and there I saw 
the power which set all the saws in motion, and 
kept them so. And that is where Paul takes us : — 
" By pureness, by knowledge, by long suffering, by 
kindness, by the Holy Ghost." Oh ! yes. I begin 
to see that great vital forces are at your command. 
" By love unfeigned, by the word of truth, by the 
power of God, by the armor of righteousness on 



34 THE SIN OF UNBELIEF. 

the right hand and on the left." Oh ! I wonder no 
longer. If that is the capital with which you work, 
your success docs not astonish me. 

If one of your capitalists should desire to send a 
friend to open a branch business for him in a neigh- 
boring city, and just as he was starting, should say 
to him : " Of course you understand you are to 
furnish all the capital ; " do you suppose he would 
undertake it ? Brethren and sisters, we profess to 
be alive unto God, living for His glory, working in 
His employ ; and I believe that the results of our 
lives are so meagre because, instead of working 
with His capital, we are trying to work with our 
own ; and so Paul adds, " by honor and dishonor." 
What, don't you care whether people honor or dis- 
honor you? "Not the least," says he; "just as 
soon serve the Master one way as another ; " " by 
evil report and good report ; " " as deceivers " — 
only put the other side — "and yet true;" "as 
unknown " to man, " and yet well known," to God ; 
"as dying," to self, sin, and the world, "and behold 
we live," or Christ lives in us ; " as sorrowful, yet 
alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich ; 
as having nothing, and yet possessing all things." 

Oh ! friends, it is truly sublime to get into the 
genius of the life of faith. I have sometimes 
likened Paul to a miller, and one comes up with a 
sack of honor on his back. " Put it in," says Paul, 
and grinds away. Another comes with a sack of 
dishonor. " Strange brand," says Paul, " but put it 
in." Now comes one with a sack of evil report. 
" What field in Corinth does that come from," says 



THE SIN OF UNBELIEF. 35 

Paul, " but turn it in." All goes into his mill, and 
he works away ; for you see he is not trading on 
his own resources ; he has learned to live the life 
of faith on the Son of God. " O ye Corinthians," 
he exclaims, "our mouth is open unto you, our 
heart is enlarged ; now for a recompense in the 
same, be ye also enlarged." Put out this dastardly 
sin ; down with it at any cost ; and say, on your 
knees before God, " By all that I, as a child of 
faith, have known of Thy gracious power, O Son of 
God, I beseech Thee to cast out the horrid power 
of this demon sin of my life." Amen. 




THE 



POWER OF FAITH 



>x^< 



ROMANS iv. 20. 

HE STAGGERED NOT AT THE PROMISE OF GOD THROUGH UN- 
BELIEF J BUT WAS STRONG IN FAITH, GIVING GLORY TO 
GOD. 



AVING spoken on the sin of unbelief, I wish 
to call your attention to the subject of faith. 
Our Christian life is a life of faith upon the 
Son of God. If we continuously exercise faith, we 
shall "win along the whole line" of our life. If we 
are weak in faith, we must to that extent fail ; if we 
are strong in faith, there cannot be failure. I desire 
now your very thoughtful attention, and I shall be 
glad if those that have their Bibles will turn with 
me to one very striking example you will find in 
the book of Numbers, of how faith held its position 
in the midst of very great difficulties. You know 
the common idea is, that if our circumstances were 
different, faith would be easier of exercise ; — we 
forget that faith is superior to circumstances. 
(36) 



THE POWER OF FAITH. 37 

That is the truth, however, — faith is superior to 
circumstances. 

Now, take such a thought as this. Has it ever 
struck you that the Lord Jesus, though He was 
Lord of all — and there can be no doubt it will not 
be irreverent of me to say it — if He had thought 
when He lived in Judea and carried on His public 
ministry, that a large estate, a well furnished house 
and plenty of money would have helped Him, He 
would surely have availed Himself of them? And 
yet the remarkable fact is before us, that He volun- 
tarily chose a condition of self-abnegation and 
poverty on purpose to teach us that our life does 
not consist in the abundance of the things that we 
possess. It is a thought worthy of our very deepest 
consideration, that the Lord of all was content to 
be in this position of voluntary poverty. And now 
to our illustration. 

I am going to take the case of Caleb. Will you 
look at the thirteenth chapter of the book of Num- 
bers. You will find that Caleb was one cf the 
heads of the tribes who were sent by Moses to spy 
out the land. We will read at the twenty-fifth 
verse : " And they returned from searching of the 
land after forty days. And they went and came to 
Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation 
of the children of Israel, * * * And they told 
him, and said, We came unto the land whither thou 
sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and 
honey ; and this is the fruit of it. Nevertheless 
the people be strong that dwell in the land, and 
the cities are walled, and very great : and moreover 
3 



38 THE POWER OF FAITH. 

we saw the children of Anak there. * * * And 
Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said " — 
Mark the utterances of the man of faith, — I have 
noticed, again and again, how faith not only holds 
its own but infuses its courage among others. 

It was just so with David when, before the fight 
with Goliath, the very first words he uttered before 
King Saul, after he had volunteered to fight, were : 
" Let no man's heart fail because of him." 

Now just look at a stripling youth like David, 
sending a mighty tide of courage right out through 
all the hosts of Israel. Then Caleb, just in the 
same spirit, "stilled the people before Moses, 
and said, Let us go up at once." That is what 
faith always says. If you are going to dilly-dally 
with it, you will find yourselves in difficulty. " Let 
us go up at once, and possess it ; for we are well 
able to overcome it. But the men that went up 
with him said, We be not able to go up against the 
people ; for they are stronger than we." That is 
what unbelief always says. " And they brought 
up an evil report of the land * * * saying, The 
land, through which we have gone to search it, is a 
land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all 
the people that we saw in it are men of great 
stature." 

Now just a thought about that. If you will look 
at the twenty-second verse you will see that the 
very place where they saw the men of great stature 
was Hebron. " And they ascended by the south, 
and came unto Hebron ; where Ahiman, Sheshai, 
and Talmai, the children of Anak, were." Now 



THE POWER OF FAITH. 39 

observe, Caleb was a man whose business it was to 
go and search for Hebron, and though, so far as 
the history informs us, the sons of Anak were not 
met with except in Hebron, and though Caleb saw 
what the others did not see, yet he looked the diffi- 
culty in the face, and he said, ' Despite the sons 
of- Anak we are going to overcome.' Now mark 
that, — it is an important point, and the bearing 
of it upon the after part of my address will be 
seen. "And there we saw the giants, the sons of 
Anak, which come of the giants : and we were in 
our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were 
in their sight." As I have already pointed out 
to you, that is one of the most cowardly ex- 
pressions that unbelief ever could have affirmed. 
We have no objection to their own little estimation 
of themselves, but to get this from the enemies' 
side, is too bad. However, unbelief is quite able 
to do that. " And the whole congregation said 
unto them," — I am reading this verse to show 
how unbelief prevails, and yet how faith holds its 
own in the midst of universal failure, — " And the 
whole congregation said unto them, Would God 
that we had died in the land of Egypt ! or would 
God we had died in this wilderness ! And where- 
fore hath the Lord brought us unto this land, to 
fall by the sword, that our wives and our children 
should be a prey? were it not better for us to 
return into Egypt ? " 

Now just think of a redeemed believer saying 
this. They had only a little time before stood on 
the banks of the Red Sea and seen their enemies 



40 THE POWER OF FAITH. 

sink beneath the mighty waves like stones, or " like 
lead," as Miriam puts it. And then they said, 
" Would God that we had died in this wilderness ! 
And wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this 
land, to fall by the sword," — isn't it terrible to tell 
God to His face that He has brought them into 
the land, to fall by the sword ? — that our wives 
and our children should be a prey ? were it not 
better for us to return into Egypt ? And they said 
one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us 
return into Egypt. Then Moses and Aaron fell on 
their faces before all the assembly of the congrega- 
tion of the children of Israel. And Joshua the 
son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which 
were of them that searched the land, rent their 
clothes : And they spake unto all the company of 
the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we 
passed through to search it, is an exceeding good 
land." 

Right in the ferment of this opposition does 
God's faithful servant speak out : " If the Lord 
delight in us, then He will bring us into this land, 
and give it us; a land which floweth with milk 
and honey. Only rebel not ye against the Lord, 
neither fear ye the people of the land." Oh ! the 
beautiful combination there! Look at it, — no 
rebellion, — God. No controversy with us, — loyal 
hearts. I say that, because you know the danger 
to which so many of God's people expose them- 
selves is, that while they are prepared to give up 
thirty-eight things, they will stick to the other two. 
Now, dear friends, I want to say this to you, — it is 



THE POWER OF FAITH. 4 1 

the things you do not give up, that God must have 
contention with you about. I will suppose that 
there is a husband living in some semi-detached 
villa outside of the suburbs of your city, and that 
in the next house there lives a very fashionable 
woman, but still a woman of very questionable 
character. There is not a husband here that would 
like his wife to have anything to say to her. But 
suppose your wife would say : " I know you have a 
very strong feeling about this, and I will not visit 
her except five minutes a week." Well, your con- 
tention with her would be about that five minutes. 
And it is so with the things God does not want 
you to have. You must give up the whole of 
them, so as to have a conscience devoid of sin. 
"Only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear 
ye the people of the land ; for they are bread for 
us." Oh! that is simply magnificent. At the close 
of the last chapter they were looking back, com- 
pletely overcome, but this man says : ' They are 
bread for us ; I am going to feed on them day 
after day,' for ' Their defence is departed from 
them, and the Lord is with us : fear them not. 
But all the congregation bade stone them with 
stones." Just look at what unbelief can do. It 
can actually come with its pile of stones and call 
on its votaries to slay outright the man of faith. 

Well, how now ? Did these men give up their 
confidence? Just listen: "And the glory of the 
Lord appeared in the tabernacle of the congrega- 
tion before all the children of Israel." God had 
come to the defence of His children. What a 



42 THE POWER OF FAITH. 

beautiful harmony there is between the fourth of 
Romans, where it says, "strong in faith, giving 
glory to God," and the glory of God coming to the 
defence of faith. 

And now, dear brethren, I want to show you the 
sequel of this. You must pardon my introduction 
trenching somewhat on my address the other after- 
noon, but I had a purpose in doing it, and that 
purpose I now proceed to show you. Let us 
turn to the fourteenth chapter of the book of 
Joshua. I told you how, in consequence of their 
rejection of the land of promise, God sware in 
His wrath that this generation of the children 
of Israel should not enter into His rest. They 
never did, — every man of them died out, and 
their bones bleached in the wilderness, until there 
was not a man of them left save Caleb and Joshua. 
Between the chapter to which I call your at- 
tention and our other reading, you must place 
an interval of forty-five years. Now observe these 
words, — the sixth verse. The children of Israel 
are in the land, — Joshua has led them on unto 
great conquests : " Then the children of Judah 
came unto Joshua in Gilgal : and Caleb the son 
of Jcphunneh the Kenezite, said unto him, Thou 
knowest the thing that the Lord said unto Moses 
the man of God concerning me and thee in Kadesh- 
barnca. Forty years old was I when Moses the 
servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh-barnea 
to espy out the land ; and I brought him word 
again as it was in mine heart. Nevertheless my 
brethren that went up with me made the heart of 



THE POWER OF FAITH. 43 

the people melt : but I wholly followed the Lord 
my God. And Moses sware on that day, saying, 
Surely the land whereon thy feet have trodden 
shall be thine inheritance, and thy children's for- 
ever, because thou hast wholly followed the Lord 
my God." 

Mark the descent here, — the children of faith, 
not the children of the Kenezites, — 'Thy chil- 
dren's forever, because thou hast wholly followed 
the Lord my God. And now, behold, the Lord hath 
kept me alive.' See how that is put. He does 
not say natural force has kept me alive, you see, — 
he says : ' God hath kept me alive.' Why, it is 
God's great business to keep faith alive. Certainly 
it is. He hath kept me alive " these forty and five 
years, even since the Lord spake this word unto 
Moses." And then observe, when the children of 
Israel wandered in the wilderness: "And now, 
behold, the Lord hath kept me alive, as He said, 
these forty and five years, even since the Lord 
spake this word unto Moses, while the children of 
Israel wandered in the wilderness : and now, lo, I 
am this day fourscore and five years old." 

Grand old man ! Outliving the generation of 
unbelievers ! Ah ! it is faith's genius to do this. 
Faith will always see unbelief dying out, — certainly 
she must. Faith always survives the generation of 
unbelievers, according to a law that knows no 
repeal. And listen : " As yet I am as strong this 
day as I was in the day that Moses sent me : as 
my strength was then, even so is my strength now, 
for war." I like that, — there is a symbol of the 



44 THE POWER OF FAITH. 

higher life. You are not allowed to fall into indo- 
lence, — no indeed, — "for war." See the old man : 
" For war, both to go out, and to come in." 

Brethren and sisters, I have a very solemn 
thought for you, and let me be careful. It may 
be that I am addressing some Christian sister or 
brother who has inherited a weakly physical frame. 
I need scarcely say, to such a one my remarks do 
not refer. But I say this, — if I am addressing a 
Christian youth or maiden here this morning, — 
my sister, my brother, listen. Know that Jesus 
Christ hath bought thy body : yield it to Him, and 
He will be the great Conservator of the forces of 
thy being and He will keep thy strength. Mind 
what I say, — for lack of this whole-hearted faith 
in the Lord, it is written in the First Epistle to the 
Corinthians : " For this cause many are weak and 
sickly among you," and some God has judged with 
death, — "some sleep." You do not belong to 
yourselves. 

How many a Christian man I have known in 
the old country drop off, as it is called, in the world ! 
They have been in the same Bible class with me. 
They have been in the same class in the Sunday 
school. They have prospered, as the world calls it, 
and they have got into certain companionships and 
fellowships of the world, and I suppose that the 
dignity of the gospel of Christ has not been enough 
for some of them, and so we have missed them, and 
they have lost their vital force as Christians in the 
luxuriance of their richly furnished houses ; and 
Christian sisters have lazily lounged upon their 



THE POWER OF FAITH. 45 

cushions, and wasted the precious hours in bed, 
when their circumstances seemed to say, you may 
take it easy. And I have seen them lose their 
physical figure, and become nil in the Church, and 
I believe for neither more nor less than that they 
had just given themselves up to an unholy self- 
pleasing instead of a devoted love of Christ. 

The Master said, and He means it : "I am come 
that ye might have life, and that ye might have it 
more abundantly." But, " If any man will come 
after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross 
and follow me." Oh ! brethren, these are searching 
words. Again I say it, Christian sister, if you want 
to retain the strength which you have now, if you 
want to be a hale mother in Israel, blessing, per- 
haps, the second and third generations, see to it 
that you follow God ; and perchance like good 
Gideon, or good old Caleb, you will say, ' I am this 
day fourscore and five years old, and yet I am as 
strong this day as I was in the day when the Lord 
spake unto me.' And now listen : " Now, there- 
fore, give me this mountain, whereof the Lord 
spake in that day ; for thou heardest in that day 
how the Anakim were there, and that the cities 
were great and fenced ; if so be the Lord will be," 
I am sorry that I have read that " will be," but you 
see it has been suggested by the translators. " Will 
be" is not in the original, — very important that 
fact. It is not "will be," — there is no idea of 
"will be" with the faithful. // is so. Then look: 
"I shall be able to drive them out, as the Lord 
said." " I shall be able," — no doubt about that. 



46 THE POWER OF FAITH. 

"And Joshua blessed him, and gave unto Caleb 
the son of Jephunneh Hebron for an inheritance." 

Now some people charge us with holding the 
so called doctrine of perfection. I trust I need 
scarcely say, that it is not true. I confess I never 
felt so deep a need of the precious blood of Christ. 
I do feel that sin is so interwoven with the very 
woof and warp of our being that I should depre- 
cate, more than words can tell, any such feeling 
as that I did not need the precious blood. And 
you know that if I held, or any one else held, the 
idea of perfection, such a thought as that I have 
been expressing could not be held at the same 
time. But I do say this, that it is of the highest 
moment to us that like good old Caleb, we should 
not misunderstand. In his case he comes and 
he expects to get the inheritance that God had 
promised. 

And what are we to expect, as we, God's chil- 
dren, walk through the world ? Are we to be 
forgotten and trodden down by our enemies ? Is 
sin to have dominion over us ? Surely not. Here 
this grand old man expelled his enemies. It is 
not said that he slew them, for he did not do that, 
and I want you to note the distinction. It is our 
bounden duty, as it is our highest privilege, to 
expel our enemies, — not slay them. If you will 
carefully search this subject out for yourselves, I 
think you will find, by every fair inference, — indeed, 
to my mind it is conclusive, — that Joshua slew 
these expelled enemies. Joshua slew them, — Caleb 
expelled them. 



THE POWER OF FAITH. 47 

It is your duty and mine to cleanse ourselves 
from all filthiness, so that we shall be vessels fit 
for the Master's use ; but let us never forget that 
while it is ours to expel, it is our Joshua's to put to 
death. " Hebron therefore became the inheritance 
of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite unto 
this day ; because that he wholly followed the Lord 
God of Israel." Now, to what have I brought you? 
Do you know the meaning of the word Hebron ? 
It means "friendship," " fellowship." That is the 
inheritance of a heart fully given up to God. And 
brethren, we are in a better position than Caleb 
was in this respect ; for you see Caleb was kept out 
of his possession for forty-five years by the disobe- 
dience of the people that surrounded him. Thank 
God the unbelief of others need not keep us out of 
our inheritance now. And again let me repeat 
that ; it is of the highest moment. I say, that in 
consequence of Caleb's position, he was kept out of 
his earthly inheritance forty-five years by the sur- 
rounding unbelief. God preserved him and kept 
him alive ; but we have this advantage, that the 
unbelief common in our day need not keep us out 
of our inheritance one single hour. 

"Hebron." Oh! what a word that is, "friend- 
ship," "fellowship," union with a living God and 
His heritage ! If I were asked to give the New 
Testament equivalent of this, I would remind you 
of the words of the beloved disciple: — "Our fel- 
lowship is with the Father, and with His Son 
Jesus Christ." "And the name of Hebron before 
was Kirjath-arba ; which Arba was a great man 



48 THE POWER OF FAITH. 

among the Anakim. And the land had rest from 
war." 

I want to take you a little further, to show you 
Caleb in his possession. Will you turn now to 
the first chapter of the book of Judges, It is 
astonishing how the Bible is its own expositor. 
May I just say to my brethren the ministers 
here, that we do great violence to the Bible by 
not making it its own exponent. I find one of 
the most profitable methods of study of the Word 
of God is to do this, supposing a word strikes me — 
you know very often a subject is contained in just 
a word : — one of Mr. Moody's most profitable Bible 
exercises is an address that he gives on " heaven," 
and he takes the Concordance, and carefully deals 
with the passages in which the word occurs, and 
there is a wonderful train of connection. And so 
of any subject. But this is just an illustration in 
passing. 

In the first chapter of Judges, twelfth and thir- 
teenth verses, you read this : "And Caleb said, He 
that smiteth Kirjath-sepher, and taketh it, to him 
will I give Achsah my daughter to wife. And 
Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother, 
took it : and he gave him Achsah his daughter to 
wife." How remarkable it is that faith has not only 
its own personal, individual strength, but that it 
has also a relative blessing to bestow. I have no 
doubt that this young man, this nephew of Caleb's, 
had had his eye upon his uncle, knew the force of 
his uncle's character, and so says young Othniel 
I'll just go and attack that stronghold ; that Kirjath- 



THE POWER OF FAITH. 49 

sepher." "I will go," and he pledges his word; he 
has partaken of his uncle's courage. 

You know some one has said, " One man of faith 
will shake the country for ten miles round;" and 
there is no mistake about it. I will venture to 
say that God does not want money, but men and 
women. Oh let us say to-day, we are ready for 
the Master's use. I have sometimes given an 
illustration of this kind in the old country. I 
dare say that some of the good housewives here 
know what it is to have in the table drawer in 
the kitchen a number of knives ; and I should not 
be in the least surprised if there was a friendship 
between you and one of those knives. You want 
a piece of bread quickly cut, and though that knife 
is not as new as some of its bright fellows, it has 
a keen edge on it, and you will pass by all the 
other knives and take it. And why? Because 
there is a keen edge on it. So if you will go and 
run your keen edge of character on the world, 
sawing it backward and forward all your life, do 
you think God will blunt you ? He will not. Tell 
me the measure of a man's devotion, the measure 
of a man's surrender to God, and I will tell you 
the limit of his powers. 

I am not now touching the question of gift, but 
of fitness for the service of the Master. Oh! that 
you and I may just realize how important this is ! 
how it is everything to us — " meet for the Master's 
use." "And it came to pass, when she came to 
him/' that is, after the marriage, "that she moved 
him to ask of her father a field : and she lighted 



50 THE POWER OF FAITH. 

from off her ass ; and Caleb said unto her, What 
wilt thou ? And she said unto him, Give me a 
blessing." Ah ! dear child, she has not known her 
father for years for naught. She knows that there 
is power to impart in the hands of a man of faith, 
and availing herself of her relationship and her 
father's possessions, she says, " For thou hast given 
me a south land ; give me also springs of water." 
He had given his daughter a south land, sunny and 
pleasant. I am afraid that some Christians go 
and get planted under a north-east wall where the 
winds blow. They want transplanting. They want 
to be where they can sing, " The winter is over 
and gone ; the time of the singing of birds is come ; 
and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land." 

In the " south land." Yes, sunny and pleasant. 
Blessed, blessed thought. " Give me also springs of 
water. And Caleb gave her the upper springs and 
the nether springs." Oh ! what a beautiful finish 
is this. " The upper springs " with their measure- 
less fullness! But mark you, he gave her "the 
upper springs and the nether." Brethren, that is 
our position with God. We are receiving and we 
are pouring out that we have received amongst our 
fellow men. If I were to go into one of your houses, 
and should see there a cistern remarkably full of 
water, and if I knew that that cistern was in con- 
nection with your water works, and that there was 
no ball cock there, I should come to this conclusion, 
that the water works were just on a level with the 
top of your cistern. But if I saw that cistern run- 
ning over, I should come to the conclusion that it 



THE POWER OF FAITH. 5 I 

was in connection with a water supply perhaps up 
in the mountain a few miles back there ; and that it 
was running over because of the height of that 
water supply. 

Now, I say to every Christian here to-day, that 
if you do not run over, it is a great shame. And 
I press this upon you, because it is not simply 
fullness that we want. If your heart is full of 
grace this afternoon, there is not much room for 
the world ; but though you be filled from the foun- 
tain, it is not enough, for I am persuaded it is- the 
overflow that blesses others. I know that it is 
easier to preach when I am overflowing in this 
way, when, as the Psalmist puts it in that forty-fifth 
Psalm, " My heart is inditing," or as the marginal 
reading is, " bubbling up/' When the living springs 
are just coming up like that, it is easy to speak. 

When I was in Chesterfield, England, I went 
to visit the house of one whose name is one of 
very great fame to most of us here, — the great 
George Stephenson, who you know did so much to 
introduce railways among us in England. There 
was his great house. I was very sorry to see it, 
because it was in chancery, and very few things 
that get into chancery ever get out of it again. As 
I went through the suites of rooms, I saw the one 
in which he died. We got in at one of the windows 
at first. The house was so desolate, — scarcely a 
fly ; a few spielers crawling about the wall seemed 
to be the only living tenants of the place. We 
went out into the back yard and our guide came to 
us there, and said: "Gentlemen, be careful; there's 



52 THE POWER OF FAITH. 

a well here. Some logs of wood have been put across 
it, but you must be careful." I approached it, and 
looked down through the logs, and the sunlight was 
shining down, and do you know, that water was the 
only living thing in that empty scene ! There, a 
hundred feet deep at the least, could be seen the 
beautiful stream playing at the bottom and forcing 
the water up, and as I looked at it, I thought, Oh ! 
may the blessing of God give me to know some- 
thing of the everlasting springs, that when weak- 
ness comes there may be no failure. 

In Wales, a few years ago, one hot July day, a 
gentleman was passing through — one of our English 
tourists — and as he was going along the hot and 
dusty road, a little girl met him, carrying an earthen 
pitcher full of spring water on her head. He said 
to her : " My child, will you give me a draught of 
water?" and she lifted the jug from her head, and 
he drank from it, and it was so cold, and pure and 
beautiful, that he asked, " Where do you get that 
beautiful water from?" and she said to him, " Do 
you see up yonder ? there's a spring coming through 
the hedge." " Yes ; and does that spring ever dry 
up?" The little girl said, "Yes, in the summer it 
dries up." " And what do you do then ? " he asked 
her. "Do you see a path up the hill to another 
spring?" she said. "Well, does it ever dry up?" 
he inquired. "Yes," she said, "two or three sum- 
mers ago it dried up." " And what do you do then ?" 
the gentleman asked. "We go up to the spring 
at the top." "And does it never dry up?" "Oh, 
no," she said, "it never dries up, away up there." 



THE POWER OF FAITH. 53 

Brethren, I have led you to the fountain that 
never dries up. Hebron never dries up. Hebron ! 
Oh ! the inheritance ! I pray you enter upon it. I 
pray you take up your abode upon it. If unbelief 
has kept you out of it ; if love of sin has kept you 
from it; if neglect of the study of this book has 
kept you from this priceless property — and many a 
Christian is in this condition — know that you have 
this immense estate left you. If knowing this you 
do not enter upon it, you are as foolish as if the 
document which gave you legal right to an earthly 
estate had been put away in the dusty office of 
some solicitor in your city, and though you could 
prove your legal right to it, you were still living in 
the six-roomed house in that street where you had 
been living for the last twenty years. That is the 
way with many Christians ; they are just living as 
though they had the title deed and nothing more. 

Oh ! that we may hear the Master saying to us 
to-day, " Freely ye have received ; freely give." I 
do not know what you would think if I had lived in 
England and invited you to come and visit me, and 
you found me living in the lodge at the gate. I 
imagine I see you in one of our English wagonettes. 
You see my well known figure emerging from the 
lodge beyond the little iron gates, and I say, "I'm 
so happy to see you, pray walk inside ; " and you 
hesitate, and another, and another, until one says, 
"We are a little diffident about it; it is true we 
came out to see you, but you are not living at the 
lodge?" "Oh! yes." "But there's a magnificent 
mansion up there behind those trees." " Well, the 



54 THE POWER OF FAITH. 

fact is, I have never been to see it." " But there's 
a magnificent view from those hills up there, and 
the estate I believe covers a very great number of 
acres." "But the fact is, ever since I have been 
here I have resided at the lodge, and have never 
gone to look at the estate." 

Some of you will say, that I would not do that, 
and I say you are right. But how many of you are 
living at the lodge to-day? You have just come 
inside, and set foot in the path of Jesus. A little 
of the light of heaven has shone upon you, but you 
have lived in the lodge. God help you to leave it, 
to say to-day, "I will change the lodge for the 
mansion, penury for plenty, spiritual poverty for 
spiritual wealth." For, blessed be God, it is written, 
'All spiritual blessings are ours in heavenly places 
in Christ' — our possession, our right. "Lo, I am 
with you alway, even unto the end." Reckon 
yourselves dead unto sin and dead to the world, but 
alive unto God with your portion in heaven. 

Brethren, mark my closing words. You and I 
are wont to communicate with our friends, and we 
have been accustomed to date our letters from our 
residences ; bear with me in saying it, (and I would 
impress the reality upon your hearts,) you have 
just as much reason to write "heaven" there if you 
are partakers of that life. Oh ! Great Father, help 
us not only to look at the truth, and see it by intel- 
lectual perception, but may it become a force, a life, 
a home, that shall be seen by our fellow men to 
Thy glory. Amen. 



CHRISTIAN RESPONSIBILITY. 



-x>>»<c 



II CORINTHIANS v. 10. 

FOR WE MUST ALL APPEAR BEFORE THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF 
CHRIST ; THAT EVERY ONE MAY RECEIVE THE THINGS DONE 
IN HIS BODY, ACCORDING TO THAT HE HATH DONE, WHETHER 
IT BE GOOD OR BAD. 

HESE words, beloved friends, do not repre- 
sent the condemnation that the ungodly will 
realize at the judgment of the great white 
throne. They represent the judgment by the Lord 
Jesus Christ upon His servants at His coming. I 
beg of you remember that. They have no reference 
to the unconverted at all. They belong to God's 
people, and to them alone. " We must all appear," 
every one of us. As the servants of Jesus Christ 
we must be manifested at the judgment seat of 
Christ, and we shall receive for the things that wc 
have done in the body according to that we have 
done, "whether it be good or bad." How mani- 
festly important this thought ! See where its rise 
is. In the very hour in which your responsibility 
(55) 



56 CHRISTIAN RESPONSIBILITY. 

to God as a sinner ceases through faith in Jesus 
Christ, in that hour your responsibility as His child 
begins. You venture into a new position. Let 
me show you by a very simple illustration. Here 
are two kingdoms — one the kingdom of darkness, 
the other the kingdom of light, — and the very ho'ur 
you are converted you are translated, — taken from 
the one kingdom and placed in the other kingdom. 
You have left that kingdom forever. You have 
come into the kingdom of light and life. You have 
come forth from the kingdom of Satan and come 
under the sceptre of the Prince of Peace, the 
Lord Jesus Christ ; and as there was condemnation 
there, there is justification here. I beg of you to 
give local identity to the thought, for your position 
is as much changed as though you had been living 
in the desert of Siberia, and had been brought 
to the sweet tropical climate of Ceylon. Do not 
forget that,-— jt is of the highest moment. If you 
"play fast and loose," — sometimes in this country 
and sometimes in that, — you will never know what 
it is to be established in peace. 

When we come to stand before the Lord our 
Prince, we shall find that heaven is not a medley ; 
heaven is not a heterogeneous assembly, all ushered 
in through an open door to take one place and one 
position. As you leave off here, you will begin 
there. One once said to Wesley concerning White- 
field, — you know that the controversy between 
Arminians and Calvinists, as they were called in 
those days, waxed very hot, and in the heat of the 
bad feeling it was not uncommon to hear doubts 



CHRISTIAN RESPONSIBILITY. 57 

expressed by the partisans of Whitefield as to 
whether Mr. Wesley would be saved, and by the 
partisans of Wesley as to whether Mr. Whitefield 
would be saved, — one said to Mr. W T csley : "Do 
you think we shall see Whitefield in heaven ?" and 
when thus appealed to, Mr. Wesley said : " No, I 
do not think we shall, for he will be so near the 
throne and we so far away, that we shall not get a 
glimpse of him." 

Ah ! sirs, I want you to remember this, that the 
Lord God beseeches us as Christians not to lose 
the full reward. I hear men say sometimes : " I 
have been converted ten years." If so, brother, 
you ought to be a long way on, — your views of 
the Divine light should be very large. The grasp 
of the truth upon you should be wonderful by this 
time. Ten years living upon Christ ! Ten years 
of His development ! Ten years of His grace in 
operation in your soul ! Oh ! what a beautiful 
character yours should be. I press these thoughts 
upon you because, when I turn to the First Epistle 
to the Corinthians, and read such words as these in 
the third chapter, where Paul is speaking to those 
who are laboring together with God : " For we are 
laborers together with God : ye are God's husband- 
ry, ye are God's building. According to the grace 
of God which is given unto me, as a wise master- 
jDuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another 
buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed 
how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation 
can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus 
Christ. Now if any man build upon this foun- 



58 CHRISTIAN RESPONSIBILITY. 

dation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, 
stubble;" — look at the contrast, — the gold, the 
silver, the precious stones, — these are the accept- 
able things — these are the things that will stand 
the fire. 

I dare say some of you remember that terrible 
accident on the North Western Railway, the Irish 
mail, when a certain English nobleman and his 
wife were burned to ashes, with eighteen others, 
when those terrible petroleum casks took fire. It 
is said that in the carriage where the nobleman 
and his wife were, they were completely burned to 
ashes, but by a careful search after the fire, some 
jewels were found that the lady had purchased in 
London, and was taking with her to her home in 
Ireland. And mark what I say to you. If you 
build upon that one foundation, all your life after 
conversion, " Whether ye eat or drink, or whatso- 
ever ye do, do all to the glory of God." 

A dear girl in our Sunday School greatly pleased 
me some time ago. She left Notting Hill and went 
to her first situation, and, some time afterwards, 
writing to one of her Sunday School teachers, 
she said: "I miss the services of the Tabernacle 
very much, but there is one thing which helps me 
greatly. Our pastor told me one Sunday that 
everything we did, we might do for Jesus Christ ■ " 
and she said — it made me smile but was neverthe- 4 
less forcible — " When I clean master's boots, I think 
if I were doing them for Jesus, wouldn't I make 
them shine ? " I tell you, when we just grasp the 
reality of that dear child's one thought, and commu- 



CHRISTIAN RESPONSIBILITY. 59 

nicate it to the whole of our character, our life will 
become simply beautiful. You cannot be unkind 
for Christ's sake, you cannot be selfish for Christ's 
sake, you cannot speak evil of your fellow Christians 
for Christ's sake, you cannot do wrong for Christ's 
sake. No man would sit down and drink a bottle 
of wine for Christ's sake, or pamper appetite for 
Christ's sake. Take heed how you build thereupon, 
for mark, " Every man's work shall be made mani- 
fest : for the day shall declare it," the very day cf 
which my text speaks to you, " because it shall be 
revealed by fire ; and the fire shall try every man's 
work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide 
which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a 
reward ; if any man's work shall be burned he 
shall suffer loss." 

Oh ! but brethren, what does this mean ? " But 
himself shall be saved ; yet though as by fire." His 
works burned up, himself saved; all the works 
burned up, himself saved ! This is one sad extreme. 
This is the result to the unfaithful child of God. 
This comes of the non-recognition of our responsi- 
bility to God as His child ; for again I remind you, 
the very hour when your responsibility to God as a 
sinner ceases, your responsibility as God's child 
begins. Oh ! important thought ! Dear friends, 
read it; get it graven upon your hearts: — "My 
responsibility as God's child begins in the very 
hour that I enter His family." 

And now, I direct your thoughts to the 'crowns' 
of Scripture, as elucidating my text. You have 
read, have you not, of the "crown of life"? Now, 



60 CHRISTIAN RESPONSIBILITY. 

I venture to say to you, that the crown of life is the 
common property of all the saved. It is the equi- 
valent of that word at the close of the third chapter 
of John, " He that believeth on the Son hath ever- 
lasting life ; " and there are none of the saved that 
have not this crown. But I hear Paul say, " I have 
fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I 
have kept the faith : henceforth there is laid up for 
me a crown of righteousness." Mark you, not the 
" crown of life," the " crown of righteousness which 
the Lord the righteous Judge " — do you see that ? 
— "the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me in 
that day." Now, what is that crown of righteous- 
ness ? I believe that it is on our part the faithful 
recognition of our service, of our sonship, so that 
we strive lawfully, that we work perseveringly, that 
we do not make a child's play of our discipleship. 
To us it is a reality in that we are redeemed. We 
recognize that we are bought with a price, and that 
therefore we ought to " glorify God in our bodies 
and in our spirits which are His." And so after a 
careful, painstaking and faithful service, the Master 
crowns us with the crown of righteousness. It is 
not a crown as though He were indebted to us, but 
it is grace's crown. Jesus loves to put — shall .1 
say laurel? — about the brows that are His, and we 
are warned not to lose a " full reward." Therefore, 
I will say to you, be not content with simply being 
saved, but let your life be the good fight for the 
crown of righteousness. 

I remember being very much struck with a testi- 
mony that I heard of one of our London barristers, 



CHRISTIAN RESPONSIBILITY. 6 1 

who was a young man, yet a Christian. He had 
prospered in his profession. He mingled a good 
deal with our professional London men, and the 
effect of dinner parties and that sort of thing was 
hurtful to his spiritual life. He had a very remark- 
able dream. He dreamed that he was gone from 
the world. His spirit was conducted by angelic 
ministers with haste away from this world, and he 
entered the hall of an immense and splendid man- 
sion. He said, no words could tell the splendor of 
the scene that he gazed upon. As he stood looking 
upon it, the angels who had conducted him thither 
entered into conversation one with another, and he 
overheard this, " Oh!" said one of the angels, "this 
was to have been his house ; it was designed for 
him ; it was the ' mansion prepared ' and all fur- 
nished, but early in his life he forsook the devoted 
service of Christ, and went back in heart into the 
spirit of the world, and it is not adapted for him 
now. We must take him away." And as the 
angels were in the act of conducting him away 
from this scene of splendor to some lower one, the 
violence of his emotion awoke him suddenly. 

Ah ! but there is truth in the man's dream. 
There are many and many who will have in con- 
trast to what they might have, very little, because 
they fail to recognize the grandeur of the service 
of Christ. I repeat it, as that book is true, as you 
and I leave off here, we shall begin in the world to 
come. 

In the First Epistle of Peter and in the fifth 
chapter you will find a crown spoken of, which is 
4 



62 CHRISTIAN RESPONSIBILITY. 

neither the crown of life nor yet the crown of 
righteousness. The Apostle warns us not to be 
influenced in our service by " filthy lucre," and he 
adds, " When the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye 
shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not 
away." Ah ! if you to-day and all your days, are 
sweetly looking in the calm rest of the faith of 
Christ upon the past, that is yours ! A cup of 
cold water, given in the name of a disciple, shall in 
no wise lose its reward. 

If in the Church of Christ you are tending the 
lambs ; if you are watching over those new born 
souls ; if you are seeking to instruct the ignorant, 
and if you are entirely developing the love of God, 
oh ! how that chief Shepherd will bless you ! how 
He. waits to put the crown of glory upon your head. 
This crown you see is in connection with distin- 
guished service in the Church of Christ. Daniel 
says, " Many of therii that sleep in the dust of the 
earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and 
some to shame and everlasting contempt; and they 
that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the 
firmament ; and they that turn many to righteous- 
ness, as the stars for ever and ever." I sometimes 
think, in one sense I shall never know to thank 
God enough for converting me when but a boy of 
fifteen. Oh ! when I think of men converted at 
fifty and sixty ! How little of life is left to them ! 
They have no vigorous manhood to bring and lay 
upon the altar. But blessed be His name, His 
grace will receive and say of each one, " He hath 
done — she hath done what she could." Oh ! how 



CHRISTIAN RESPONSIBILITY. 63 

immensely important it is to see that our life here 
is like a great seed ground, in which we place the 
acts of a devoted life to bear fruit that shall be as 
an eternal heritage in the kingdom of God ! 

I beseech you to be watchful. Christianity is 
not exhausted when you become a Christian, — 
you have only begun. It is a life of endless pro- 
gression. Paul reproves the Corinthians for going 
to law before the world, instead of before the 
Church, and says : ■' Have ye no wise men among 
you ? Don't you know that the saints are to judge 
the world ? ' ' Don't you know,' again he asks, 
'that the saints are to judge the world?' Oh! 
God, am I to be Thy executor in reference to the 
judgment of the ungodly ? Am I, by Thy grace, to 
occupy the judicial bench in company with Christ, 
as touching Thy final designs ? Are angels that 
kept not their first estate, to hear their sentence 
from these lips ? Then, what a fool that man must 
be who fails to recognize the wonderful fact that 
Christians will be " kings and priests unto God for- 
ever !" It is a wonderful thing to be a Christian. 

There is one other thought I would just speak 
to you about before I close. The Apostle calls 
Christians his crown of righteousness. Ah ! sirs, 
some of you, I fear, will claim starless crowns. 
You have had the opportunity of winning your 
brother for Christ, but by your half heedlessness 
you have lost the opportunity. Mothers, you might 
have saved your children for Christ, but in your 
coldness you let them grow until the evil days 
came when they had no pleasure in the Lord. A 



64 CHRISTIAN RESPONSIBILITY. 

few weeks before I left England I came in contact 
with one of the most melancholy cases of that 
kind, I think, I ever heard of. In a little town in 
Suffolk county, a little boy died, and he said to 
his father and mother: "You have been good 
parents to me from my earliest memory until now. 
I never wanted for anything. But your relation- 
ship to me has just been restricted to my body. 
You have never said one word to me about my 
soul, and I am dying and am lost." 

Oh ! 'tis terrible to think that we who have the 
light of life should actually refuse to shine. It is 
not that we have not the light. This is what 
Christ says to us : " Let your light shine." You 
have it, — He says, "Let it." You have hidden it 
under a bushel of shame, — you have hidden its 
brightness, unlike the Apostle Paul, who says : ' I 
am debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbari- 
ans ; the sinner, the bond and the free, wherefore 
my life may be rich.' Oh ! I beg of you, enter into 
the kingdom of God. I remember grasping the 
hand of a brother who died, — a member of my 
church at Notting Hill. He said to me: "Dear 
sir, I am going home," and looking up in my face 
with his bright eyes, for he was dying of consump- 
tion, he said : " Sir, I shall be on the look-out for 
you when you come." Ay : — 

" Teachers and kindred have passed on before, 
Waiting, they watch us approaching the shore." 

Have you no interest in laying up for time to 
come ? That quaint old preacher, — strong, vigor- 



CHRISTIAN RESPONSIBILITY. 65 

ous man as he was, — Ralph Erskine, had in his 
congregation a very rich, but very godless man. 
Often reproved, this godless man died, and one of 
his friends came to Erskine, and said, "Sir, So-and- 
so's dead." Erskine could be very sarcastic when 
he pleased, and he said, " Is he ? " " Yes," said his 
friend, "and he has died worth a hundred thousand 
pounds." "Um!" says Erskine in his gruff way, 
" that's a nice sum of money to begin business 
with, in the next world." Gold is not the currency 
of that country. See to it, I beseech you, that you 
lay up for yourselves that which shall make the 
Master say to you, ' Well done ; thou hast been 
faithful over a few things, have thou authority over 
ten cities.' 

Oh ! Master, what does that mean ? Are we in 
the ages to come, in consonance with our kingly 
character, sharers of Thy throne, to have the 
government of the eternal angels? Are we to 
have sovereignties that shall put the petty sove- 
reignties of the world into the shade as something 
mean and contemptible ? Ah ! it may be even so i 
The outlook of the Christian is so magnificent that 
my poor speech and thought are not fitted to set it 
forth. May God help us, that we lose not a full 
reward. 

And now here are words of solemn rebuke from 
God to those cold-hearted Christians who sit down 
in indolence and sloth, and who do not hesitate 
to make light of God's honest servants. They 
will come and look in at an inquiry meeting, 
and brand it as some social excitement. Alas ! 



66 CHRISTIAN RESPONSIBILITY. 

alas! they have never had any interest in saving 
souls, and unless they get repentant and broken 
hearts, — for I am free to confess that I have done 
most of my repentance since I was converted, yes, 
I mean what I say, I have done most of my repent- 
ance since I became a converted man, — unless 
they change their minds, and their hearts are 
broken about this, the day of the Lord will declare 
that though they themselves may be saved, it will 
be " so as by fire," and instead of having crowns to 
cast at His feet, their hands will be empty. I care 
most for the crowns for their intrinsic worth. I 
thank God it is written, — for when I have read 
about the crowns, I have wondered what I should 
do with them, — I thank God that I read : " They 
cast them at His feet" I would like to do that. 

Oh ! I charge you see to it that you be not saved 
by the skin of your teeth. See to it that the angels 
do not have to challenge you ; but that adding to 
your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge 
temperance, to temperance patience, to patience 
godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to 
brotherly kindness love, even so you shall not be 
barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord, 
but entrance shall be abundantly administered unto 
you in the everlasting kingdom of our Lord, not in 
the future only but now. As the Master says, 
" Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and 
die, it abideth alone : but if it die, it bringeth forth 
much fruit." I hear men saying sometimes — they 
have said said it to me again and again, — "Ah! sir, 
you are killing youiself." I tell them I mean to 



CHRISTIAN RESPONSIBILITY. 6j 

die in the service of Christ. By His grace it will 
be said, that this life was sacrificed, if you will 
call it so, in His service. When I see a man sacri- 
ficing his life for money, do you think I would 
allow him to call me a fool ? The folly is his ! 
When I see a man sacrificing his life for sensuality, 
what more pitiful folly can there be than his ? 

Oh ! brethren and sisters, I commend this sub- 
ject to you, and I pray that you may have many 
sheaves to lay at the feet of the great Husbandman, 
as James puts it, who quietly waits for the fruits of 
the earth. God bless these words to you, and may 
they be productive of intelligent devotion and ser- 
vice, and may you see that Christ's life is not a 
thing of traditions. Remember that the service of 
Christ demands every power you possess, in the 
spirit of love. I would that you should realize this. 
I fear that very many Christians understand but 
little of the power of the services of love. My 
brethren, bear with a plain illustration ; it is intended 
to carry weight with it, and it is forcible. If the 
time should come when any woman in this room 
should be betrothed to the man of her choice, she 
would not be a woman if she did not allow her 
heart to go to him. And mark you, if you arc 
betrothed to Christ, let your heart go to Him not 
as a Master but as a Husband ; let your free spirit 
rejoice in His service. 

I know of many Christians working hard, oh ! so 
hard ! And what do they do ? They crowd their 
service with acts of work in order to make out 
that they are God's children. Oh ! it would make 



68 CHRISTIAN RESPONSIBILITY. 

me sorrowful, if, when I reached England, I saw my 
daughter working hard at her studies from six 
o'clock in the morning until nine at night ; and 
when I asked her, " What is all this work for, dear 
child?" she should look up in my eyes and say, "I 
am trying to establish in my heart that I am your 
own child." I would say, " What ! working fifteen 
hours a day to establish in your own mind your 
relationship to me ! Oh ! never do that, you are 
my child." The idea of a servile spirit in the child 
of God is terrible. Let your hearts go to Him, 
and you know how easy it is to serve those we 
love. 




ABIDING IN CHRIST. 



>J«<00 



JOHN xv. 4. 

ABIDE IN ME, AND I IN YOU. AS THE BRANCH CANNOT BEAR 
FRUIT OF ITSELF, EXCEPT IT ABIDE IN THE VINE ; NO MORE 
CAN YE, EXCEPT YE ABIDE IN ME. 

HERE must ever be a great difference between 
our knowledge and our realized experience ; 
but I am persuaded that the gulf need not be 
astonishingly deep, and while our knowledge should 
ever be in advance of our experience, yet I am sure 
of this, that the Lord wants us to know the power 
of that endless life that we possess, from the first 
dawn of our waking consciousness in the morning, 
until we lose ourselves in sleep at night. I am the 
more anxious to say this, because I do not wish to 
discourage the least of God's little ones. I am 
anxious to say it, lest any of us should suppose that 
we have obtained a position where there is no 
future advancement. I trust that we deeply feel 
to-day, — perhaps more than ever, — the Apostle's 
(69) 



70 ABIDING IN CHRIST. 

words, 'Forgetting the things which are behind, 
and reaching forth unto those things which are 
before, we press toward the mark,' for the prize of 
the high calling of God encourages us. 

I wish to read to you now a few verses from the 
fifteenth chapter of John, and I will be very thank- 
ful if you will have your Bibles open before you as 
I read. [The speaker here read from the first to 
the sixteenth verse of the fifteenth chapter of St. 
John's Gospel, both inclusive, and then proceeded :] 
I will stay our reading there. The words to which 
I call your attention are found at the commencement 
of the fourth verse, "Abide in Me, and I in you." 
Very wonderful is the testimony of Jesus. In the 
preceding chapter this question is put to Him : 
Judas (not Iscariot) said, " Lord, how is it that 
Thou wilt manifest Thyself unto us, and not unto 
the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, If 
a man love Me, he will keep My words." 

"If a man love Me," observe, "he will keep My 
words : and My Father will love him, and we will 
come unto him, and make our abode with him." 
Now, it seems a wonderful thing to say that the 
renewed heart of every child of God is the home of 
the living God, but I dare not deny it : I should 
not be faithful to my precious Lord, if I did not 
affirm that there is not one of them in whom the 
Father and the Son alike have not come to make 
their abode. God help us to receive that thought. 
And again: "Your bodies are the temples of the 
Holy Ghost." Will you be careful of that — the 
Trinity enshrined within us. Oh! Emmanuel, God 



ABIDING IN CHRIST. 7 1 

with us, how wonderful is Thine intention to the 
sons of men! That is the human side of it. 

You will find the divine side in the last verse 
of the second chapter of Ephesians. When you 
read these words, speaking of the Church of God, 
let me remind you that it consists not of professed 
members of any order of Christians, nor yet of any 
"section," as they call it; no, but of the living 
members of the living body in every department of 
God's great family : "In whom all the building fitly 
framed together groweth unto a holy temple in the 
Lord. In whom ye also are builded together for a 
habitation of God through the Spirit." This is the 
divine side. What a wonderful thing it is to say 
in this sense, God is homeless! ! But yet it is true. 
The highest thought of God as touching His home, 
has not yet been consummated, but it is being 
wrought out even now in the world, " builded 
together for a habitation of God through the 
Spirit." 

Well, now, it may perhaps be asked by some of 
you, "What is it to abide in Christ?" I am 
thankful that in such a theme as this the Scripture 
is its own interpreter, and let me remind you that 
this has evidently been God's thought from the 
commencement. When He redeemed Israel He 
did not redeem them into circumstances of inde- 
pendence; on the contrary, He redeemed them 
into circumstances of dependence upon Himself. 
He made them His especial care, — He was their 
king. When He selected Abraham, He told him 
as one of the conditions of the divine friendship, 



*]2 ABIDING IN CHRIST. 

that he should leave his own kindred and his own 
home ; and he was separated as a stranger and a 
pilgrim, and it is said that " he looked for a city 
which hath foundations, whose builder and maker 
is God." And so on through the whole range of 
the former testimony you will come in contact with 
these words. 

Take David as an example, — he said : " I was 
glad when they said unto me, Let us go unto the 
house of the Lord." " My heart and my flesh crieth 
out for the living God." " How amiable are thy 
tabernacles, O Lord of hosts." But since Jesus 
came, the material has given place to the spiritual. 
It is not in temples made with hands ; it is not in 
Shiloh, nor yet at Jerusalem, that the tabernacle of 
God is with men. The Christ of God is come, and 
is not enshrined beneath majestic cathedral domes, 
but in His own beautiful manhood, that He may 
get into the hearts of men. Oh ! precious truth, — 
the passing away of the material, the incoming of 
the loving, mighty heart of Jesus enshrined in a 
body like ours. 

I wish you to notice that Jesus, in speaking of 
abiding in Him, tells us what this is in four special 
ways in this chapter; and if you will first of all 
look at the ninth verse, you will see the first 
thought that I will give you : " As the Father hath 
loved me, so have I loved you : continue ye in my 
love." Now if I am asked what it is to abide in 
Christ, I say to you it is to abide in His love. 
Mark the first of these words. It is net our love 
to Christ, — it is Christ's love to us. I confess 



ABIDING IN CHRIST. ?$ 

that I have been ashamed of my love to Christ 
thousands of times ; I have never once been 
ashamed of His love to me. 

I was much impressed when preaching in my 
native village three or four years ago, with the 
remark of an aged man present in the congregation. 
He was over ninety, and had known me when I 
was but a very little boy, and he spoke to me, and 
I asked him this question, "My dear aged friend, 
do you love Jesus?" His deeply furrowed face 
was lit up with a smile that sixty-seven years of 
discipleship had imparted, and grasping my hand 
with both his, he said, " Oh ! I can tell you some- 
thing better than that." I asked him, "What is 
that?" "Oh! sir," he said, "He loves m:." The 
old man was right, it is the love of Jesus ; and 
Jesus asks us to continue in His love, — that love 
which is everlasting, that love which is boundless, 
that love which reaches on and on throughout the 
eternity of the future. 

Blessed thought this, Christ says, "As the Father 
hath loved Me, so have P loved you." I ask you 
where is the line that can gauge this? Stand and 
pause. Let the Master's sweet voice reach us. 
Spirit of God, strengthen us that we may under- 
stand it. " As the Father hath loved Me, so have 
I loved you." Is that the measure ? Oh ! ineffable 
love of God to Thine only begotten Son! And 
dost Thou, Jesus, love me like that? Then in that 
love will I abide ; I will not look at the little I 
know of it. A clear child in London went with his 
father for the first time to Brighton, and when the 
4* 



74 ABIDING IN CHRIST. 

little fellow came home, he said to one of his 
school-mates who was in the house, " I have seen 
the sea." The little boy was pleased with what 
he had seen ; but his father overhearing him 
thought, "How little of the sea my boy has seen; 
just to the sky-line round there, that was all." 
Some of us who have been to Australia a hundred 
days out of sight of land could say we had seen the 
sea, and I sometimes think that when by faith we 
get out of the shallows, where we lose sight of 
land, calmly riding on the bosom of the mighty 
heights and depths and lengths and breadths of 
the love of Christ, we then sec the sea. 

" Abide in My love." Oh ! brethren, this is rest. 
I was remarking in the prayer-meeting this morn- 
ing, that I very much wished Christians would let 
alone the miserable talk about trying to love Christ. 
There is not a husband in this house who would 
not be pained to his heart's centre, — I know I 
should, — if he had been absent from his wife for a 
week or ten days, and she should say to him on 
his return, " I have been trying to love you since 
you went away." Love is not a force-pump ; you 
cannot get it up that way. I beseech you, let alone 
trying to love Christ ; let it alone until the generous 
glow of His love begets the generous return tide 
of your own. 

I once heard a brother say, in one of the Dublin 
meetings : " Worship in its highest sense is this, 
the heart filled with God's goodness, and hence 
filled with His love and power until we cannot hold 
that which we have, and we send the overflow back 



ABIDING IN CHRIST. 75 

again to the Eternal." It is very true. That is 
one of the highest thoughts of all that you can have 
of what worship is. My time forbids me to enlarge 
upon this. 

Will you now just notice the eleventh verse: 
"These things have I spoken unto you that my joy 
might remain in you, and that your joy might be 
full." And here again see how Christ maintains 
the same order. It is not your joy that increases, 
— it is Christ's joy in you. I beg you get clear 
thoughts of Scripture, — get on to God's foun- 
dations, or you never can have a superstructure 
that is worth looking at. You call in a builder and 
you ask him to rear you a house of four or five 
stories on one of your loamy, sandy foundations; 
and I warrant you the worse your foundation, the 
worse your superstructure will look when it is up ; 
it will be full of cracks here and there. Your 
superstructure must be built on God's foundation. 
Christ's love first, and then that that followeth out 
of it. " Abide in My love," in My joy. I often 
quote those words to dear friends in England which 
we read in the thirteenth of Luke : " There is joy 
in the presence of the angels of God over one sin- 
ner that repenteth," and nearly all the Christians 
that I come into contact with, immediately identify 
those words with the angels' joy. Why, my friends, 
it does not say so. It says there is joy "in the 
presence of angels," and if you asked me whose joy 
it is, I would not affirm that the angels are not con- 
tributors to that joy as friends and neighbors, but 
it is the joy of the Father — of Him who gave His 



?6 ABIDING IN CHRIST. 

precious Son. It is the harvest joy from the earth 
that makes glad God's heart. Let me read to you 
one passage that you will find in the prophet 
Zephaniah. They call him a minor prophet, I sup- 
pose, because he did not write as much as some 
of the other prophets, but what he has written 
is very blessed : " The Lord thy God in the midst 
of thee is mighty ; He will save ; He will rejoice 
over thee with joy; He will rest in His love; He 
will joy over thee with singing." 

I remember being at Brighton one day, — I was 
very weary with preaching, — and as I walked out 
on the dyke road, that some of you may know, my 
hat in my hand, in the beautiful May morning so 
fresh and clear, the gladsome breeze so grateful to 
my hot forehead, I looked on the scene around me 
and thought how fair it was. There was the green 
verdure of God's carpet at my feet, those grand old 
hills right and left giving such a view of His power, 
the bright sunshine overhead, and yonder, away in 
the distance, the bright blue sea. And as I looked 
over it I thought, what a grand theatre is this for 
the display of God's power. But I asked myself, Is 
there anything in all this that makes glad the heart 
of God? Does the sunshine cause Him joy? Do 
these grand old mountains move one emotion of 
the mighty God ? And I felt that it could not be 
— that God's emotions are not moved by the ma- 
terial world. You must go into the divine word 
to find what God needs in this respect. John says", 
"God is ]ovq } " and the waves of ocean cannot 
satisfy His want, — He wants our love. But in the 



ABIDING IN CHRIST. yj 

great theatre of countless millions of human hearts 
God finds the place where His requirements are 
met ; and I venture to affirm that this is the reason 
why, when the disciples came back, after leaving 
Jesus at the well of Samaria tired and worn, and 
said to Him: "Master, eat," that Fie turned to 
them and said : " I have meat to cat that ye know 
not of." Peter asked : " Hath any man brought 
Him aught to eat ?" I think if I had been there I 
would have said: "No, Peter, no; but this dear 
woman, for whose love Jesus came from heaven, has 
just sent the first tide of her new-born love into 
His heart, and His hunger is past and His thirst is 
gone," for it was His meat and drink to find the 
salvation of men. But there is a capability that 
you and I possess, if we rest in His joy, as the bride 
in the arms of her husband. You sing : — 

" Safe in the arms of Jesus, 
Safe on His gentle breast. 1 ' 

Is this mere hollow sentiment, or is it true ? God 
enable you to abide in His joy. And yet again, in 
the fifteenth verse : " I call you not servants ; for 
the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth : 
but I have called you friends." It is not that I 
have called Jesus my friend, it is that He hath 
called me His friend, — He is responsible for that. 
You have no business to find fault with Him for 
doing it. If He is pleased to call a poor sinner like 
me His friend, that is His business, — you have 
no right to object to it. Oh ! how precious ! But 
I venture to say this : I would not take to my 



^8 ABIDING IN CHRIST. 

grey-headed father to-day, and present as my 
friend, a young man of whose moral character I 
was ashamed, and I speak it with profound mean- 
ing when I affirm that this expression involves that 
Jesus has caused to pass away from us as His, 
everything that would prevent His presenting us 
to His Father as His friends. Do you believe that*' 
Fit for His friendship ! " He that sanctifieth and 
they who are sanctified are all one, for which cause 
He is not ashamed to call them brethren, — friends. 
Take the next verse: "Ye have not chosen Me> but 
I have chosen you," and here again the same sweet 
thought appears, — not our choice of Christ but 
Christ's choice of us. Oh ! how precious. 

I have used an illustration that I might repeat 
here to you. It has been said by some one, in a 
kind of parable : " Supposing that a flock of sheep 
were to come to the shepherd, and one of the sheep 
should say to the shepherd, ' Shepherd, 1 know that 
I am your sheep, for you got eight pounds of wool 
off my back at last shearing day ; ' and another 
were to come and say, ' Shepherd, I believe that I 
am your sheep, too, because you got six pounds of 
wool from my back,' and another were to come and 
say, ' Well, and I suppose that I must be your 
sheep, too, because you got four pounds of wool 
from mine,' and a fourth were to come and say, 
' Really, I am in doubt, for you only got two pounds 
of wool off my back ; ' until at length," says the 
writer of this parable, "one poor scraggy fellow 
came along and said, 'I do not know whether I am 
your sheep, because you did not get anything from 



ABIDING IN CHRIST. 79 

my back.' But supposing that the shepherd turned 
and said : ' I would that every one of you gave me 
eight pounds of wool: but the question whether 
you are my sheep or not rests here — that I bought 
you and paid for you.' " Oh ! blessed truth ! Yes, 
we have not chosen Him, but " I have chosen you 
and ordained you that ye should go and bring forth 
fruit and that your fruit should remain." 

Look at these four things, love, joy, friendship, 
choice. I am not about to enlarge upon them ; I 
might with profit, but I will not. I remember,— 
you will forgive me, I am sure, for the personal 
allusion, — I remember how, when this heart of 
mine first loved an earthly object very dear to me, 
I was very poor and went away to Australia to get 
what we sometimes call a start in the world ; and 
when I look upon my beloved wife to-day, I think 
of her from this point of view, my life, my joy, my 
friend, my choice ; and ours -is a happy home. If 
you know this — if it is reality to you, — you will 
rest in His love. Why, He " joys over thee with 
singing." Yes, 'tis even thus, — married to Him, 
the object of His eternal love, His abiding joy, His 
unchanging friendship, His choice. 

But I dare not part with you thus. It is only 
one side of my theme. For these wonderful 
spiritual blessings there is a corresponding respon- 
sibility on our part, and how sweet is the teaching 
of Jesus, that there is responsibility. I don't want 
men to talk glibly about the choice of Christ. If 
you speak about His election, remember that it is 
"unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of 



80 ABIDING IN CHRIST. 

Jesus Christ" Remember that we are redeemed 
to be "a peculiar people." I think if there is one 
type of Christianity so-called, more terrible than 
another, it is that in which a man settles down into 
some cold, intellectual understanding of the truth, 
and says he is saved when his life declares that he 
is lost. That I deprecate. I thank God from the 
depths of my heart, that the Father of our spirits, 
the God of truth, when men have gone to one 
extreme, has supplied them with correctives on the 
other side. 

Now look at this tenth verse again. It shows 
you the human responsibility. " If ye keep My 
commandments, ye shall abide in My love ; even as 
I have kept My Father's commandments, and abide 
in His love." This, then, is to be the test of your 
rest in the love of Christ. If you refuse to keep 
His commandments, you shall not know His love. 
I remember once hearing a minister, who was 
speaking of the indwelling of the Spirit, use the 
following beautiful figure: "Take care," said he, 
" that as your body is the temple of the Holy 
Ghost, He has the whole range of the house ; if 
you shut up the drawing room of the soul " — that 
was his thoughtful expression — " for worldly com- 
pany, and you go in and fraternize with them, I do 
not say that the Spirit will leave the house — very 
faithfulness to Christ will prevent that — but like a 
grieved guest, He will go to some upper chamber 
in the soul, and He will leave you to your worldly 
company." 

It is even so. Many of you here, I fear, have 



ABIDING IN CHRIST. 8 1 

again and again grieved the Spirit of God by giving 
yourselves up to fellowships, by giving yourselves 
up to associations in the world, which you knew 
had no power in the kingdom of God; for " The 
kingdom of God is not meat and drink." It is not 
your showy dress dinners ; it is not your ball-room 
splendor; it is not the gilded halls of the theatre — 
no, brethren, a thousand times no ! " but righteous- 
ness and joy and peace in the Holy Ghost." Take 
care where you put that redeemed body. Will you 
carry it inside the theatre, redeemed young sister ? 
Beware lest you change the character of the Spirit 
from an abiding Comforter into a constant reprover. 
There are many Christians who know the Spirit of 
God mainly as a reprover of them " all along the 
line " of their life. 

Notice again, "His commandments are not 
grievous." Listen: — "Oh Israel, that thou hadst 
hearkened unto My commandments, then had thy 
peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the 
waves of the sea." Now, side by side with the joy, 
we have the " new commandment." What is that ? 
I believe that that joy is the highest spiritual 
blessing that we know. I believe that joy is in 
relation to love, what the ripe fruit is in relation to 
the blossom. It is the ripening of love. Now, if 
you desire to obtain this highest blessing, the prize 
that you must hope for is the love of God's people 
of every name. " Seeing ye have purified your souls 
in obeying the truth through the Spirit, see that 
ye love one another with a pure heart fervently." 
You want Christ's joy; then I tell you that you 



82 ABIDING IN CHRIST. 

must love your fellow Christians of every name, 
not in word but in deed and in practice. You are 
not to love your fellow Christians because they are 
not members of the church that you attend, nor 
yet because of the social position that you occupy. 

If yoii have sisters in the church who are not so 
rich as you, you must not pass them by. You 
must love. Oh, the curse of those opinions that 
have separated God's children one from another. 
I have learned this, that names have little power ; 
yet there is a name that makes us know what love 
is, — "Jesus," who loved us and gave Himself for us, 
and I would rather be stoned to death, than refuse 
to go out in aH that means the bigness of the 
Master's love, to every one — even the least of His 
little ones. Would you abide in His joy? Then 
you must give up that narrow self-consciousness. 
"Master, we saw one casting out devils in Thy 
name, and we forbade him, because he followed not 
us." " Forbid him not." Oh ! these distinctions ! 
We have a great deal of j3ride in England. You 
know that two of the coins that we have in currency 
there are the half-crown and the two-shilling piece. 
I used these once in speaking of this pride, and 
said, "So petty are the distinctions amongst many 
Christians, that Mrs. Half Crown will scarcely 
speak to Mrs. Florin." It is just the same else- 
where. 

I tell you, brethren, that I do not believe the 
Gospel reduces everything to one common level, 
but that it brings character up to the dignity of 
that hearty generous love that suffers long, love 



ABIDING IN CHRIST. 83 

that is kind, love that thinks no evil. A great deal 
of the love that I see amongst so-called Christians 
fails very quickly. That is not the love of the 
thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians. If you 
would abide in His joy, you must love His people. 
I met a poor fellow who was converted at fifty. I 
was converted at fifteen. Sin never had the power 
over me that it has had over him for many years. 
Am I to put the standard as high for him as for 
myself ? Sha ne on me if I do. Am I to point the 
finger at him ? Oh ! brethren, may God send home 
these thoughts to your hearts. 

And now, once more, as touching the friendship, 
what is involved ? what is the correlative on the 
human side? "All things that I have heard of My 
Father, I have made known unto you." You must 
make that book your closest companion. I say it 
not to make you think anything of me, but that is 
the most intimate companion I have ; not even my 
own precious wife do I know so intimately as the 
book of God. No ; that I should be a husband is 
one of the happinesses of my life ; that I should be 
a father or a preacher is one of those incidents that 
come along, but the fact of my existence is, that I 
should be a friend of Christ, and possess the knowl- 
edge of His love. How often I go into houses and 
see the big Bible lying there — you can see it is not 
a used book. I have seen, in my Bible readings in 
England, ladies in the upper and middle classes, 
and accomplished women by hundreds, come in, 
and when I have got them to this point, that they 
have brought their Bibles with them, they have not 



84 ABIDING IN CHRIST. 

known where to look for the Epistle to the Romans, 
and I have seen them turning over in the Old 
Testament for it. The ignorance of God's word is 
profound, and I wonder not that they could have so 
little of what is meant by friendship. " Oh ! So-and- 
so's a very intimate friend of mine," says one, 
"but we only see one another once in six months, 
not oftener than that." Why, that would be a 
contradiction in terms. Is an intimate friend one 
who has met you ? No, certainly not ; but one whom 
you have companioned with. 

And now, what is the last responsibility ? " Ye 
have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you, and 
ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth 
fruit, and that your fruit should remain." For fruit- 
bearing, brethren : remember that, fruit-bearing. I 
believe that this is where our safety lies when people 
speak to us as they sometimes do about perfection. 
If I went into a vineyard or an orchard and saw 
there a tree full of corrupt fruit, taking off every 
particle of that fruit would not make the tree good. 
Some people have an idea that it is only necessary 
to pull off the bad things — the unfruitful works of 
darkness — and I press that word unfruitful. Mark 
what that word is! The Christian is not a tree 
like the oak tree ; he is rather like an apple tree. 
I would have every branch of my life loaded with 
fruit. 

On my way down to Bristol, I stepped out of 
the train at a little town where I was to preach 
one night. There was on the station a rustic seat, 
and growing over it there was a small tree — the 



ABIDING IN CHRIST. 85 

station-master was evidently a man of taste, for 
there were many beautiful flowers about the station 
— and in order to incline the boughs so as to form 
an arch over the seat, he had tied many stones on 
the branches. I observed that it was not a fruit- 
bearing tree ; and I believe many Christians are 
like that. God has inclined the branches of their 
life in the direction He wanted, but alas ! alas ! 
they give themselves up rather to please themselves 
than to bear fruit unto Him, and so He has come 
and tied the heavy stones of care and troubles, 
and what you call afflictions, to them in order to 
bring them where He wants them. Fruit-bearing 
is not the thing that some people would make it. 

Suppose that I had here to-day a beautiful purple 
cluster of grapes, such as you know grow in Eng- 
land, and such as I presume you have here, and 
supposing I were to look at that splendid cluster 
and say : " How did you ever come into that beauti- 
ful condition ? What ripeness ! What fullness ! 
How luscious ! How beautiful is the bloom upon 
you ! How fair you look ! How did you come into 
this condition?" The cluster might be supposed 
to answer : " Oh ! I simply abided in the vine." 
" And how is that ; did you not go out into activi- 
ties ?" " Oh! no ; I simply abided in the vine and 
out of the reach of the frosts ; it was by virtue of 
my place in the vine that I attained to what I am." 
No thanks to ourselves, — we are silent. Our only 
praise is of Him whose virtue we have received 
until we have come to the condition in which you 
see us. 'Tis ever thus, oh ! fruit-bearer. As He 
5 



86 ABIDING IN CHRIST. 

says: "Without Me ye can do nothing." Would 
God that you might form the solemn resolution : 
"Jesus, Thou sayest, 'Without Me ye can do 
nothing,' and I will enter into my side of that con- 
tract : and that is this, Lord I will do nothing with- 
out Thee, — it shall be Thy love, Thy sympathy, 
Thy strength, — not I, but Christ living in me." 

" Abide in Me and I in you," and a generous 
fruit shall come morning, noon and night, and thine 
old age shall be blessed. " Thou shalt still bring 
forth fruit in old age, and be fat and nourishing," 
for " Herein is my Father glorified that ye bear 
much fruit." Remember it, — love, joy, friendship, 
choice, — and the responsibilities, take thought of 
them. Keep His commandments, love His people, 
search His word, bring forth fruit, and thou shalt 
understand, not in theory only, but in actual experi- 
ence, what it is to " Abide in Me and I in you." 
Amen. 




THE 



MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT. 



>>»<< 



ROMANS viii. 14. 

FOR AS MANY AS ARE LED BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD, THEY ARE 
THE SONS OF GOD. 



fERHAPS it would be helpful to you, brethren, 
if I were to speak to you upon the ministry 
of the Spirit. Let us tarn to the sixteenth 
chapter of the Gospel of John, fifth, sixth and 
seventh verses. " But now I go My way to Him 
that sent Me ; and none of you asketh Me, Whither 
goest Thou? Bat because I have said these things 
unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart. Neverthe- 
less I tell you the truth ; It is expedient for you 
that I go away : for if I go not away, the Comforter 
will not come unto you ; but if I depart, I will send 
Him unto you." I intend to emphasize the personal 
pronouns that follow, and for the simple reason, 
that in our day there are a great many who think 
of the Spirit as an influence. Now, I beg of you, 
banish such a thought from your minds. I never 
(87) 



88 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT. 

like to speak about the influences of the Spirit of 
God. It is an unscriptural term. Of course, I 
know what it means, but there is nothing in the 
Spirit less than this, the power. As though Jesus 
had foreseen the danger that is suggested by this 
thought, observe how He emphasizes what comes 
after. 

" And when He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, 
and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin, because they 
believe not on me ; Of righteousness, because I go to My 
Father, and ye see Me no more ; Of judgment, because the 
prince of this world is judged. I have yet many things to 
say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit, when 
He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all 
truth : for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He 
shall hear, that shall He speak : and He will show you things 
to come. He shall glorify Me : for He shall receive of Mine, 
and shall show it unto you." 

I thank Jesus for this splendid specimen of tau- 
tology, to rebuke the skepticism of the day, that 
would talk about the Spirit of God as an influence. 
"Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God," saith Paul. 
Who ever talks about grieving an influence? What 
nonsense ! We speak of grieving a friend ; we talk 
of grieving some loved one — grieve an influence 
indeed ! What rubbish ! Brethren, I speak solemn 
words to you about this. The Spirit of God is a 
person equally with Christ. May I ask you now to 
turn over to the second chapter of the Acts of the 
Apostles. [Having read that chapter down to the 
thirty-third verse inclusive, the speaker went on to 
say :] It was necessary that I should read thus far, 
contrary to my desire, in order to point out to 



THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT. 89 

you, that while the Spirit of God has ever been 
in the Church, was with the Church in its earliest 
days, as it is written, " In the beginning * * * the 
Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters" 
— in the book of Genesis; seen in increasing 
brightness as we hear the Psalmist say: "Take 
not Thy Holy Spirit from me;" wonderfully clear 
in the testimony of Ezekiel, when he said, " Come 
from the four winds, O breath ! and breathe upon 
these slain, that they may live ; " ever carrying on 
with increasing power the great work of gathering 
together, from Abel's time until now, the great 
family of the living God. 

It remained, however, for the Lord Jesus Christ 
to come, and it remained for Him to be exalted 
before we became possessed of the Comforter — the 
fullness. However blessed the Holy Ghost may 
have been known in individual experience in the 
times that are past, never let us lose sight of this 
great truth spoken by Christ, prophetic of His 
glory in the seventh chapter of John. " He that 
believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of 
his [inmost being or] belly shall flow rivers of living 
water. (But this spake He of the Spirit, which 
they that believe on Him should receive: for the 
Holy Ghost was not yet given ; because that Jesus 
was not yet glorified.)" But now He is glorified — 
exalted to the Father's right hand. "He hath shed 
forth this that ye now see and hear." 

Oh ! with what divinest intention did Jesus tell 
His disciples to tarry at Jerusalem until they were 
endued with power from on high ! The Saviour's 



90 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT. 

ministry on earth being finished, His place is as a 
forerunner at the right hand of God, waiting to 
introduce those who come as the great harvest 
from earth, and it remained for the Spirit of God 
to perpetuate the work of Jesus. And I desire to 
express a thought which I feel will carry your 
judgment with me, when I say, that whether you 
think of the dignity of Christ's character, or whether 
you contemplate the great issues intended, the 
work of Christ must — mark what I say — must pass 
into the hands of the Spirit of God. Shall the 
magnificent issues of Christ's work come into the 
hands of fitful and spasmodic and uncertain men ? 
Surely not. We could not entertain such a thought 
for a moment. The Spirit of God alone has dignity 
enough, has power enough. Who can raise the 
dead but the Spirit of God ? who but the Spirit of 
God can bring men from darkness to light ? Oh i 
brethren, I confess to you that I should give up the 
ministry before I am a week older, were it not for 
the profound consciousness that I am aided by 
God's Spirit. I tell you, I have but very little hope 
of any man who disdains or insults the Spirit of 
grace. 

If any man affect to believe that his intellect is 
enough to receive divine truth without the Spirit, 
I believe that man will die and be lost as surely 
as that I am standing on this platform. These are 
solemn words, but remember that the work contem- 
plated by the preaching of the Gospel is work for 
eternity, and we want an eternal Builder to fashion 
the stones. 



THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT. 9 1 

Jesus puts, as it were, a stay to all active efforts. 
He tells His disciples, the one hundred and twenty, 
to wait, — here let me say that I have no sym- 
pathy with those who tell us that the one hundred 
and twenty represented the results of Christ's 
ministry upon earth, — because, in the fifteenth of 
First Corinthians Paul tells us that He was seen by 
above five hundred, and I believe that in Judea 
there were tens of thousands, the fruits of Christ's 
labors. It may be a new idea to some of you, but 
I ask you to think about it and read in the light of 
God's Word whether it be not so. 

They were to wait. I see that gathered company 
of the disciples in the upper chamber, abstracting 
themselves from the affairs of life as much as pos- 
sible. They were to wait until the day of Pentecost 
came, — until it came fully, — and they patiently 
waited. They were gainers by waiting. I tell you 
that it is a very blessed thing to wait before God 
until we get the noise and bustle out of us. 

It is written of Christ : " He shall not cry, nor 
lift up nor cause His voice to be heard in the 
street," and I do fear that many Christians are 
living such busy lives that they have too much 
noise about them to hear the voice of Jesus. John 
himself learned in that upper room that it was not 
by love alone. Peter, with all his desire to redeem 
the past, he too, must learn that it was not by the 
zeal that should animate him. No; I think the 
lesson that they were learning was but this : " Not 
by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the 
Lord of hosts." 



92 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT. 

The current of the divine Spirit's purposes is 
flowing through this world to-day. If you cast 
yourselves into its flow, you will fulfill the will of 
God, but everything depends on that. If you stand 
aside, you will not do it ; you cannot do it ; it is 
impossible to do it. O God, bring us into Thy 
will in this respect, we beseech Thee. Now, 
there is a very beautiful teaching in the gift of 
Pentecost. You remember how on the first day 
of the resurrection, Jesus said to Mary, "Touch Me 
not: for I have not yet ascended unto My Father: 
but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend 
unto My Father, and your Father ; and to My God, 
and your God." Now, I venture to think, without 
at all dogmatizing, that the first thing Jesus did on 
the morning of the resurrection, was to present 
Himself in the presence of the Father. Of course, 
you know after the resurrection, Jesus' body was 
not subject to material laws as it had been before. 
It is an interesting thought — that He could give 
Himself to the apostles, and say, "Handle Me and 
see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones," and 
then vanish out of sight. Time and space were 
nothing. It was simply the action of His will ; and 
I believe He was in the presence of Flis Father on 
the resurrection morning, presenting His creden- 
tials from the earth. 

That which suggested this thought to my mind 
is found in the book of Leviticus,* where on the 
morrow after the Passover Sabbath the high priest is 
directed to present a green sheaf out of the harvest 

*.See Chapter xxiii. ioth and following verses. 



THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT. 93 

field before the Lord. You will find that the dif- 
ference between the feast of the Passover and the 
feast of weeks was exactly fifty days. 

Forty days was Christ with the apostles after 
His resurrection, engaged in establishing them in 
the things relating to His kingdom, until His 
ascension ; and I have no doubt the remaining ten 
days while they were waiting for His promised gift 
of the Spirit, were occupied in the same way. 
Thus the forty and the ten, like the time which the 
Jews were commanded to count "from the morrow 
after the Sabbath, from the day that " they "brought 
the sheaf of the wave offering, * * * even unto the 
morrow after the seventh Sabbath, number fifty 
days ; and when the fifty days were up, I see the 
Father, having accepted Him, giving Him the won- 
derful gift of the Holy Ghost. That is our royal 
heritage. I do not receive the Holy Ghost merely 
because I am fit for it, but I receive the gift of the 
Holy Ghost because Christ is exalted. I ask you 
to think of that. 

The Apostle says, "This only would I learn of 
you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law 
or by the hearing of faith?" You believe, and you 
receive this gift by faith only. Now, I want you to 
notice some precious teaching here. I see that 
gathered (-company in the upper chamber, and when 
the morning of Pentecost is come, Jesus receiving 
that gift which is the fullness of love and joy and 
peace and every blessing, and in the impetuosity 
of His great love, sending that Spirit down "sud- 
denly." Oh ! mark the impetuosity of His love. 



94 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT. 

" Suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a 
rushing mighty wind." He had told them that He 
would not leave them comfortless. Those were 
almost His last words, and just as He told them at 
the table, " I will not drink henceforth of this fruit 
of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with 
you in My Father's kingdom." 

The grand cluster from this earthly Eschol went 
up, and expressed as it were in the Father's pres- 
ence the purity of His glorious and wondrous man- 
hood, and then the cup of our salvation from that 
expressed individuality comes down to be gladness 
and rejoicing in the Church of the living God. 
Let us take that cup of salvation. It is put into 
our hands, let us drink it, and magnify Him who 
hath given it in His wonderful grace. I am not 
surprised that they said " These men are drunk 
with new wine." It seems to me, that with the 
light of the Epistles if I had been there, I should 
have said, ' Yes, we accept what you say ; we are 
full of new wine.' We are to be inflamed, to be 
excited, to be energized by the Spirit. 

There is a sense in which our life is not a stag- 
nant thing. Some one has said, that man's life is 
passed between these two points, desire and satiety. 
There is a great deal of truth in this, and so I 
remind you here to-day, that the Spirit of God has 
been given to us to inflame us, to excite us, to be to 
us what the sensual man finds in the wine cup. 
See him, mark his eye, look at his gait, listen to his 
speech. He will speak as he cannot speak, he will 
go where he would not go, except under this influ- 



THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT. 95 

ence. There is an unnatural brilliancy about his 
eye. But this drunkenness of the disciples was 
not an impure thing, but a power, an energy, the 
energy of the Holy Ghost. God grant that you and 
I may work in the power of the new, the true, the 
beautiful, as Paul puts it, " Striving according to His 
working which worketh in me mightily." It is the 
Spirit of might. 

Will you notice again, that the Spirit is repre- 
sented here like cloven tongues of fire. It is a 
very beautiful expression. I believe that the lesson 
taught by the impartation of the Spirit, enabling 
the disciples to teach the Parthians and the Medes 
and the Elamites and all the other different nation- 
alities that were gathered together, so that there 
was not a creed outside the ranore of their teaching 
— is, that in all the departments of life we may 
glorify God. For instance, I am here a preacher 
of the gospel ; if I return to England, I take the 
place of pastor of my church ; I am a father, a 
husband, a business man, and the Spirit of God 
has been given, that in all these details of my life 
I may glorify Him ; for observe, "Whether there- 
fore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all 
to the glory of God." I believe that the Spirit of 
God — and I say it with though tfulness — is needed 
perhaps more in the market than anywhere else. 
In the counting-house, in the different spheres of 
every-day life, it is needed. It is not in some official 
position as a rule, that we feel its want, but where 
there is failure in what are sometimes called the 
little things. 



g6 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT. 

The Spirit of God can endow you with a won- 
derful inheritance. There is a great deal said about 
temperament. I wish they would cut short the 
word and say, 'There is a great 'deal in temper.' 
But as to temperament, I think we are very much 
mistaken about it. Grace can make us the strongest 
on the weakest side of our character. Why, what 
would the Master do with His prodigious strength, 
if it were not for our weakness? If you are wont 
to be depressed, the Spirit of God can make you 
joyous. Alas! how many Christians go out into 
some scene of earthly enjoyment. They sit down 
to some novel, or engage themselves about dresses, 
or go to the theatre ; and they call this the honey 
of human life, instead of remembering that the 
kingdom of God is not meat and drink. Thank 
God, there is enough in the boundless sufficiency 
of the Spirit of the living God. 

Those who were gathered together on the day of 
Pentecost, were believers who had labored success- 
fully for Christ, and yet there was an advanced 
experience there that they became real partakers of. 
Well, but do you mean that we are to have another 
Pentecost? Dispensationally, no; experimentally, 
yes ; and no dozen of us could go aside and wait 
before God for the increase of the power of the 
Spirit, that we would not realize it. It is on this 
ground that I never care for people praying for the 
outpouring of the Holy Spirit, as though they 
thought of the Holy Spirit being in heaven to be 
communicated in answer to prayer. Never think 
of the Spirit of God as away from you ; He dwells 



THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT. 97 

within you, and He is to dwell with you forever. 
An absent Spirit, an absent Father, an absent 
Christ, is not the teaching of this book : " If any 
man love Me, him will My Father love, and we will 
come to him and make our abode with him." 

I hear people talk about approaching the Lord. 
I dare not approach. The Lord made me nigh 
when I was first converted. I had then liberty to 
enter within the veil by the precious blood of Jesus, 
but I have never had any liberty from my Father 
since then to go out forever. If I ever go out, it is 
in violation of His will. I beseech you, never allow 
the thought of distance to find a lodgment in your 
hearts. 

And now I ask you to notice again, the Spirit is 
shown as of fire. The figure is very beautiful, 
because you know how naturally cold we arc. I 
say this to you, because I want you to know that 
you really have no native power. You know what 
a cold room is in winter time. By your warming 
arrangements here, the illustration would not do, 
but it would in England. I have caught a great 
deal of cold in the latter part of October, and in 
November, when I have been taken into drawing 
rooms. I would rather go into the kitchen. It is 
so nice and warm there, and the drawing rooms are 
so cold. And so with some Christians ; they are 
awfully cold. Their big houses do not make them 
warm. The fact that they have prospered, or that 
their husbands have occupied high official positions, 
docs not make them warm. They have missed the 
baptism of fire, and they are cold and must be cold. 

5* 



98 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT. 

"Like as of fire;" so expansive. Oh! the genial 
warmth. 

And here a word of kindly sympathy. Do I say 
some things that pain you ? Am I finding out the 
weak place ? Would you, Christian sister, — would 
you say to me if we were alone, 'Dear Mr. Varley, 
my life does sadly break down at home.' I know 
many who say that to me. My dear friend, I 
tell you, there is no cure for it until you just get 
firm hold of this precious truth, the baptism of the 
Spirit of God in power. Now do not let your 
coldness hinder you. Suppose that in a fortnight's 
time, the weather having turned very cold, some 
friend of yours should come to your house at 
night and knock at the door, and when the door is 
opened he refuses to come in. The servant tells 
you this, and you come out to the door yourself, 
and you say, 'Oh! pray come in ; it is so cold out 
there.' But he says, ' I can't come in yet.' ' But 
why can't you come in ? " Why, you would make 
the coldness an additional reason for his coming in. 
There are thousands of Christians just so cold, and 
in that darkened condition of the understanding, 
which I think the devil himself is in ; they say, ' I 
can't come in until I am warm.' I think the pre- 
cious words of Hart might apply here: "If you 
tarry till you're better, you will never come at all." 

Not only fire, but listen, that "mighty wind." 
I went when a boy to Australia — I remember the 
fine old ship that we started in — and when we 
reached the tropics we were becalmed. It is even 
now a matter of memory. One day we lowered the 



THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT. 99 

boats, and as though the great Atlantic Ocean was a 
sea of glass, a number of us rowed round the vessel 
— not one breath of wind — and there she swayed 
to and fro and her big sails napped on the masts. 
Often have I, leaning over the taffrail of the vessel, 
watched when the sun went down, to see if there 
were any chance of wind, and the eye would detect 
in the distance just a little ripple, and in half an 
hour's time the breeze would overtake us, and soon 
after we would see those big sails no longer flap- 
ping, the ship no longer a lifeless log upon the 
water, but as though influenced with the energy of 
vital force, she darted like a bird through the 
waters, every stitch of canvas filled. 

Ah ! this is what we want. I have no native 
energy to move me forwards toward home, — none 
whatever. I have no native power to help me to 
preach. Christ says, "Without Me ye can do 
nothing." God help me with an intense apprehen- 
sion of this truth. I will throw myself at His feet 
and say, ' Lord, I will never attempt to do anything. 
Let me work by Thy power.' As the Psalmist puts 
it in the forty-fifth Psalm, "My heart is inditing a 
good matter." The marginal reading is, "It is 
bubbling up." You have seen the flame beneath a 
cauldron making the water or other fluid in it boil — 
what a commotion there is on the surface and per- 
vading it all — that is the way I long to preach the 
Gospel. * I appeal to my brethren, the ministers of 
the Gospel, this afternoon, Is it not true, as I con- 
fess for myself, that we would rather break stones 
in the streets than preach the Gospel of Christ 



IOO THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT. 

without the baptism of fire. O God! I ask Thee 
to forgive me, that I have ever received inspiration 
from a crowded audience instead cf by the baptism 
of the Spirit. Let us remember the Saviour's 
pledge, " Lo, I am with you always," and let our 
power be not only as we sing with Lynch, in the 
Hymn on the Spirit : 

" Mighty Spirit dwell with me, 
I myself would mighty be ; 
Mighty so as to prevail 
Where unaided man must fail ; 
Aided by a mighty hope, 
Pressing on and bearing up — " 

but at the same time, 

" Gentle Spirit, dwell with me, 
I myself would gentle be." 

Oh! let the tenderness of the Spirit make us like 
nurses, or as Paul puts it, as an affectionate mother 
over her children. These are some of the precious 
blessings that come to us by the gift of the Spirit. 
I venture to think that the different sections of the 
Church have yet to learn what it is, by that Spirit 
to be baptized into one body. I believe that unity 
consists not in ecclesiastical systems. I believe 
that it is by our recognition by the power cf the 
Spirit, cf the oneness that is ours in Christ Jesus 
the Lord. Names have small power to divide. 
There is a name ; there is a love that amazes one. 
It is the love of Christ ; it is the power cf the 
Spirit ; it is the name of Jesus. Many things will 
harmonize when this is right. O yes, I am sure of 



THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT. IOI 

that I never felt disposed to speak unkindly of 
those Christians who differ from me. I am some- 
times, for example, with those who think a great 
deal of what we call High Church. Now I venture 
to say, with great thoughtfulness, that those who 
have represented the evangelical section cf the 
Church, are not a little to blame for their views. 

You must bear with me. We have loved and 
honored friends in the old country who have been 
wise and yet injudicious. I will tell you what they 
have said. They have said, " O, give us very plain 
buildings ; we do not care for anything ornate. 
Give us a plain surplice or gown, as the case may 
be. Give us the Prayer Book ; give us the people. 
That's all we want." They were right enough in 
this, but many a dear brother who has held the 
theory of evangelical truth has not life enough. 
How cold he has been ! how mechanical his service i 
how he has lacked the baptism cf fire! A dear 
fellow, when some of his brethren have come in 
and said, " Is this the best representation cf the 
Gospel we can have," has gone off to an extreme. 
I am not surprised at it, and I feel that I would 
just as tenderly encompass in the arms cf my love 
brethren who hold these extreme opinions, as some 
others, because I am persuaded that when the High 
and the Low get hold of this precious truth of the 
power of the Spirit of God, the little things — and 
how little they are when you come to it — will 
vanish. 

I could not understand a man who possessed the 
baptism of the Spirit, turning his back to his 



102 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT. 

congregation and manipulating at some altar. No, 
if the soul was filled with the love of Christ, and 
possessed by the Holy Spirit of God, he could not 
be mechanical, but would say, " Give me the book, 
the living power of the Spirit, and if you please, the 
open street, four bare walls, what you like ; I have 
all I need ; I have the baptism of the Spirit of 
God." Oh, brethren, there are hundreds of things 
that separate us in this way. ''Seeing ye have 
purified your souls in obeying the truth through the 
Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that 
ye love one another with a pure heart fervently." 
O God, in Thy mercy make us to be filled with the 
Spirit. Let us dare to believe that we are. I do 
not mean that you should thoughtlessly say to 
every one that meets you, " I am filled with the 
Spirit." It is not, perhaps, the wise thing. But 
seeing that it is written, " Be ye filled with the 
Spirit," in the calm faith of God's children who 
have the heritage of Christ, let us believe that we 
are filled, nevertheless ; and when the vessel is full 
of love and joy and peace and gentleness and good- 
ness and meekness and patience and faith, you will 
have a compass for these. You will have a love 
that will astonish you, because it is not some of 
the poor native flow, but the boundless love of the 
great Spirit of God. 

O Spirit of might and power ! come into us, rest in 
us, brood over us, Tantil possessing our whole being, 
we may show what God can do with very poor 
vessels that are surrendered to Him. Some one 
of you says, "Ah, sir, that is just it, a poor vessel." 



THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT. 103 

Well, what of that ? what if you are a poor, cracked 
vessel, letting out the blessing which you receive ? 
I admit that you and I are poor, cracked vessels, 
letting out that which we receive ; but supposing 
this were a glass, and this a tap, and supposing that 
I turn the tap, don't you think that if there is a 
bountiful supply behind, it will keep the vessel full ? 
But the glass may leak. Yes, but the fountain will 
keep it full. Be not discouraged ; these wonderful 
blessings are ours, not because we are worthy, but 
because Christ loves us. Christ loves us ! we love 
also. O Jesus ! partakers of Thy endless life, let 
us know what it is to reproduce that beautiful life 
over again for Thy glory. Spirit of God, strengthen 
us with might in the inner man. Amen. 




THE 



BREAD OF LIFE 



>J»?c 



EXODUS xvi. 35. 

AND THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL DID EAT MANNA FORTY YEARS, 
UNTIL THEY CAME TO A LAND INHABITED : THEY DID EAT 
MANNA, UNTIL THEY CAME UNTO THE BORDERS OF THE LAND 
OF CANAAN. 

IN more than one address I have endeavored to 
point out how fully the Old Testament makes 
__ known the Lord Jesus Christ, and perhaps in 
no part does the excellency of Jesus Christ come 
out more vividly, than in this beautiful type of the 
manna. He himself has given His introduction 
to my theme, very distinctly identifying Himself 
as the true manna which came down from hcavem 
of the which, if a man eat, he shall live forever. 
The condition of Israel was such that they must 
be supplied by the living God or die. The wilder- 
ness could not supply them with food, and since 
their unbelief had shut them out of the land flow- 
ing with milk and honey ; since God had judicially 
( 104) 



THE BREAD OF LIFE. IOS 

separated them by His oath, swearing in His wrath 
that they should not enter into His rest, (and, as 
you know, that whole generation died, save only 
Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son 
of Nun, and the children under twenty years of 
age, when the oath went forth,) — I pray you ob- 
serve how this provision was entirely of God's 
mercy. I should like to identify my theme with 
the chapter, so that whenever you read it again, 
the thoughts I express may come to your minds. 

Note first, that the manna was provided by God 
in the dark night of their human need. How 
precious is the thought thus suggested. When 
man was lying in the hopelessness of sin, the 
Eternal God Himself brought in His own wonder- 
ful provision. There, upon the ground, the manna 
lies. I love to think how near it is, and that the 
Lord Jesus Christ has come to our necessities. 
" Who shall ascend into heaven, that is to bring 
Christ down from above, or who shall descend into 
the deep, that is to bring Christ again from the 
dead, for the word is nigh thee." Oh that I could 
take you outside the tents of Israel, and show you 
there that manna which God so bountifully show- 
ered around. There it is, and I would here point 
out to you the responsibility which rests upon us. 
Either the manna must be taken up by us or we 
must tread upon it, — one thing or the other. It 
must be taken up or trodden down. It lies there 
in its minute form, — small as coriander seed, — 
like the hoar-frost on the ground. So abundant 
has our God made the provision of salvation, that 



106 THE BREAD OF LIFE. 

there is not one soul in this house to-night who 
need leave it unsaved. " He that bclieveth on 
Him is not condemned ; but he that believeth not 
is condemned already, because he hath not be- 
lieved in the name of the only begotten Son of 
God." 

And remember how adapted to the need of the 
Israelite was this manna, and how beautifully 
adapted is Jesus Christ, as the bread of life, to 
every one cf us. Still men arc idly speculating 
upon the Lord Jesus as a bundle of doctrines, of 
difficult theories. . But I would ask you to remem- 
ber how the eternal God lias made Him to be 
the bread which comcth down from Heaven. He 
cannot bear that you should die ; it is the bread 
which sustains ; it is Christ which is the life. He 
that hath the Son hath life, for as Jesus so sweetly 
says : ' I am the bread from Heaven, cf which if 
a man cat he shall live forever.' I pray that your 
minds may be disabused in this beautiful figure, 
of all the difficulties which may suggest them- 
selves to you about the reception cf Christ. Re- 
member that Christ is bread to the soul. He 
scatters the harvest-field of the world with His 
presence, and bids you cat. There is not a loaf 
that finds its way on to your table but it speaks 
of Jesus to you. It whispers, " I am the bread 
which came down from Heaven." The hunger 
of the soul must be appeased. There is a sphere 
in which you cannot find even the temporary rest 
which man has now. The rich man, when he 
passed away into the other world, lifted up his 



THE BREAD OF LIFE. 107 

eyes, being in torment, and asked that Lazarus 
might be sent to cool his parched tongue. And 
there is an absence of the bread which satisfies, — 
an absence which I pray God you and I may never 
know, for the time will come when God shall re- 
move this wondrous provision. 

Ac;ain, observe that although the manna was 
given in the dark night of their necessity, it needed 
the incoming dawn in order to its discovery. I 
am rejoiced that that morning has dawned on the 
world's history. The light has come ; as it is 
written, " Unto you that fear My name shall the 
Sun of righteousness arise widi healing in His 
wings." Yes, my friends, from your unbelief I cad 
you, from that dread valley into which many of you 
perhaps may be settling : you say, ' I am almost 
in despair, for there was a time in my history when 
I looked for Christ and when He spoke to me, but 
I rejected Him and put away the overtures of His 
love.' I charge you remember, that there need 
be no hesitation, for the light has come. " I am 
come," says Christ, " a light into the world." " He 
that followeth me shall not walk in darkness but 
shall have the light of life." 

Along with the morning light came mists ; there. 
may be some of you here on whom the light has 
come so gradually, that as yet there is a mist on 
the face of the condition of your mind. You 
are something like the poor man in the Gospel, 
of whom it is recorded that he saw men as trees 
walking. I have often thought of the beauty of 
that simile. The soul seeking for Christ in his 



108 THE BREAD OF LIFE. 

own strength is just like that. He docs not know 
exactly what it is to be saved; there is a dim mist 
before him, and he does not know what eternal 
life is, You ask him whether he is whiter than 
snow ; you ask him whether he discerns the differ- 
ence between salvation by the work of Christ and 
the imperfect work of the Spirit — he does not 
know ; and there may be some Christians who have 
never yet seen the difference between the work of 
Christ and the unfinished work of the Spirit. 

I charge you remember this, that you are not 
saved by the work of the Spirit of God in you, but 
you are saved by the work of Christ for you. 
That work of Christ is over ; it is completed. 
You cannot add anything to it. Oh, believe and 
live. If you were to ask me how I feci as touch- 
ing the work of Christ for me I should say : Abso- 
lutely finished ; finished, every jot. If you ask 
me about the work of the Spirit in me, — I say it 
thoughtfully, — I never felt it so incomplete as to- 
night. Oh, that Spirit of God leads us on, and, as 
we get nearer home, the discovery of that which 
is before us leads us to cry out with the Apostle: 
" Not as though I had already attained, either were 
already perfect : but I follow after, if that I may 
apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of 
Christ Jesus. * * * But this one thing I do, forget- 
ting those things which are behind, and reaching 
forth unto those things which are before, I press 
toward the mark for the prize of the high calling 
of God in Christ Jesus." Yes, brethren, again let 
me point out to you by the light of the rising sun 



THE BREAD OF LIFE. IO9 

the essential difference between the finished work 
of Christ by which yon are saved, and the unfin- 
ished work of the Spirit of God, developing the 
Christian life in you to-day, and which work is to 
go on until the latest hour of your life here upon 
the earth. 

And now, notice, "when the sun was up," — they 
saw it by the light of the rising sun. The sun for 
us is Christ, for He is risen again for our justifica- 
tion, and we can see clearly now that the bread of 
God, the life of God, is not something we are in 
ourselves, but it is that we receive from Him. 
You know how much controversy has raged in 
the Church for centuries past about that expres- 
sion in the sixth of John, where the Lord speaks 
about the importance of our eating of His flesh 
and drinking His blood ; and the Church of Rome 
has gone off into the broad materialistic idea of 
transubstantiation, whereby they tell you the flour, 
or the bread, and the wine, become the actual 
and real body and blood of the Lord Jesus. And 
then there is the Ritualist, who gives you a 
modified but still very untrue view of the same 
doctrine. 

Dear friends, let your faith simply perceive this, 
that whoever truly receives the body and blood so 
represented, is the real Christian, the vital man ; 
that you must receive His being into yours by 
faith, — mark what I say, — His being with yours, 
that is what Christianity is ; it is Christ received. 
Let me say to you that Christianity is the recep- 
tion by faith of God's Christ into your inmost 
6 



110 THE BREAD OF LIFE. 

being, until the veins of your spiritual nature are 
filled with the veritable blood, the life ; for the life 
is in the blood. It is the actual reception by you 
of God's Christ, or, as one has beautifully ex- 
pressed it, the Lord Jesus descending from the 
divine nature to the human, in order that He 
might raise the human to the divine, and you and 
I, through participation in God's Christ, have par- 
taken of that which makes us one with Him in 
dignity of character, in continuity of life, in glori- 
ous destiny, "for He is not ashamed to call us 
brethren." He says, " Go to my brethren, and say 
unto them, I ascend unto my Father and your 
Father, and to my God and your God." 

However stupendous that thought may be, yet 
is it true, oh blessed Christ, that Thou didst 
come, — the true bread from heaven, — that we, 
receiving Thee, can never die. Christianity, then, 
is not a system of morals, but spiritual life re- 
ceived from Christ, — a participation in the bread 
sent down from heaven. Once again, I want you 
to notice the position of the manna ; here it is on 
the ground. I think if this platform upon which 
I stand were covered with manna, and it lay there 
like coriander seed, it would be the height of folly 
for me to attempt to pick it up while in a stand- 
ing posture. I could gather it up best by getting 
down on my knees. There is here a thought, 
which I pray may abide with you forever. 

You remember the woman of Canaan, to whom 
the Saviour said, " It is not meet to take the 
children's bread and to cast it unto the dogs." 



THE BREAD OF LIFE. Ill 

The idea that you, a poor worm of the earth, 
should eat angels' food ! To think that you should 
become a partaker of the divine nature ! to think 
that you a poor creature, with an uncertain life 
of thirty, fifty, or seventy years, should be ele- 
vated unto participation of the divine ! And when 
Christ tried her faith by saying unto her, "It is 
not meet to take the children's bread and to cast 
it unto the dogs," she answered, " Yes, Lord : 
yet the dogs under the table eat of the children's 
crumbs." Oh for this same spirit among you all, 
that every soul here would get down under the 
table, would get down on his knees, and not think 
he is patronizing Christ, but receive Him, the 
Bread of Life, for famishing men. 

I would to God that that scene could be enacted 
here which was enacted by the lepers of old, when 
the famine was so sore. They said, " If we go 
into the city it is death, and if we go into the 
camp it is death." But necessity compelled them 
to go into the camp, not to die, but to find abund- 
ance of provision : and I would that every uncon- 
verted soul should come into this condition of 
sheer necessity. I would to God that you should 
hear the Master say, in the secret despair which 
enwraps you, "He that cometh to Me I will in 
no wise cast out." 

Down, then, upon your knees, for the manna lies 
thick upon the ground. It is there for the old and 
infirm who will pick it up ; it is there, the youth 
may find it ; it is there, the maiden may eat it ; it 
is there, the man in the prime of his days shall 



112 THE BREAD OF LIFE. 

eat it, and eating it he shall live forever. Forever, 
is the word. 

"Oh, that glorious word, Forever, 
Yes, forever is the word : 
Nothing shall the ransomed sever, 

Naught divide them from their Lord." 

They have eaten the bread, they have participated 
in the life, which if a man once receive, he can 
never die. Not only do we want the humility 
which brings us there, but do you see how God's 
dignity and our humility meet, as it were. When 
we get down into the dust He comes and lifts us 
up. He lifts the beggar from the dunghill and 
sets him among princes. 

I ask you to notice another very interesting 
thought. They all gathered this manna. Some 
gathered more, some less. How beautiful it is. 
It is no distressingly hard thing to eat. It never 
interferes with the digestion of the smallest child, 
and it is adapted to the physical nature of the 
strongest man. And oh, the adaptation of the 
Lord Jesus to every one who seeks after spiritual 
food. Many get into physical sickness by partak- 
ing too freely of that which is most pleasant to 
the taste. Do you remember the account given in 
Exodus of the table of shew bread ? on the table 
which was kept in the holy place of the tabernacle, 
every Sabbath morning twelve fresh baked loaves 
were placed before the Lord. These twelve loaves 
were made of fine flour, the material was not to 
be changed, fresh kneaded and fresh baked, and 
the twelve loaves placed on the table by the High 



THE BREAD OF LIFE. 113 

Priest every returning Sabbath morning. Now it 
was not a question of what was pleasing to the 
worshipers, it was a question of what was accep- 
table to God ; and I venture to say the preacher 
who says, " Will this be acceptable to my people ? " 
is not preaching the gospel of Christ. 

While chatting with a Church of England cler- 
gyman, not long since, he said to me, " My dear 
sir, I should be so glad if you could just help me 
a little. I am a clergyman, and I want to know 
something about the secret of the power which 
you seem to possess, for evidently God is with 
you ; and I want to know how my usefulness may 
be increased." In the course of our conversation 
he told me that he wrote out his sermons, — I 
have no objection to this, for it is desirable that 
what a man has to say on such an important 
theme should be well studied, — and that he read 
and re-read them, and if there were any thing 
which would offend any of the congregation he 
expunged it. " Oh, sir," I said, " that is enough 
to make your preaching a failure. My dear friend 
you must declare the whole word of God." 

1 pray you see that the appetite for Christ is 
formed before the time comes when there will be 
no opportunity of embracing this glorious life. Oh, 
thou blessed One, beget the appetite in many 
souls. Oh that we might hear the cry, " My soul 
thirsteth for God," or say, like Jeremiah, " I found 
thy word and did eat it, and its fruit was sweet 
unto my taste." See to it, that day by day you 
be satisfied with Christ. 



114 THE BREAD OF LIFE. 

I do not know whether I ever stated here, that 
in this Bible of mine, at the end, there is a list 
of the titles of Jesus Christ. They number three 
hundred and sixty-seven, — one for every day in 
the year, and two beyond. Oh, the wondrous 
fullness there is in Christ. Tell me, brother, do 
you want a Saviour ? He is that. Do you want 
a Redeemer ? He is that. Do you want the 
Shepherd? He is that. Do you want Love? 
He is that. Do you want a Keeper ? He is that. 
Do you want the Bread of Life ? He is that. 
Do you want the Rock ? Do you want the Water 
out of it ? Do you want the Honey ? Do you 
want the Vine ? It is all gathered up in one great 
fullness, pouring out its eternal plenitude for the 
sins of men. Go, scatter that manna. Fathers, 
scatter it for your children ; husbands, for your 
wives, and wives for your husbands. Shake the 
bread of God until, out of the seed basket, every 
servant, employee, and friend, shall be brought 
in contact with the Bread of Life. The abundance 
that is there ! There it lies ; and there it must 
be trodden upon, or it must be gathered up. Send 
out the children to gather it. It is adapted for 
the tiniest years ; it is adapted for the oldest man ; 
and there it lies, on the face of the camp, given 
in the dark night ; but the night passed, the rising 
sun discovers its whereabouts. Do pick it up, 
and continue eating and live. 

Brethren, I call you to the feast, — the feast 
which God has so richly provided ; and I pray you 
remember the figure, it is bread ; it is adapted 



THE BREAD OF LIFE. 11$ 

to our common needs. One of your American 
preachers has said that Christianity is indeed the 
Bread of Life, but says he, " Alas, alas, how many 
Christians there are who do not seem to under- 
stand the appropriateness of this figure ! When 
1 was a boy I used to get a loaf and would keep 
trimming slices off, around and around ; and so I 
went through my boyhood to manhood, eating 
constantly of the bread which nourisheth ; and so 
my statuie increased. It was growth by taking 
hold of the bread ; but, alas, many, many Chris- 
tians make cake of it, and they put it away in the 
cupboard, and then, if they do ever bring it out, 
hand it around on china plates, as much as to 
say to friends, the less of it you eat the better." 
There is a great deal of truth in his quaint, sar- 
castic reproof. 

I beg of you take this Bread and eat it, and 
eating it you shall live forever. I beseech you let 
the Lord Jesus Christ fill the heaven of your soul, 
and cry out, in the language of the Scriptures, 
" Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift." 
Eat this Bread, take it into your inmost being, and 
you shall experience the truth of what the Psalmist 
says : " Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I 
should not sin against Thee." And let me beg 
of you to get up early in the morning and eat of 
this manna. Early in the morning they went out 
to find it. We read that when the sun arose the 
manna was spoiled. If you let the early hours of 
the morning pass by, if you do not unlock the 
day, as it were, with God, I have observed there 



Il6 THE BREAD OF LIFE. 

is but little chance of redeeming it at noon-time. 
No, this manna must be taken in the morning, and 
when by this diligent gathering of Christ your 
vessel runs over, go and share it with those you 
meet. Go, strong, vigorous man, and share it at 
the bedside of your sick one. Go, father, and 
speak of it to thy child. Go, wife, and speak of it 
to thy husband. 

There is One yonder, into whose hands the 
government of the eternal ages is delegated, and 
with whom centuries of men are to reign. I ven- 
ture to believe that the world is far nearer the 
final issue than we think for. I look back upon 
the great downfalls of the earth's mightiest pow- 
ers, covered with commercial prosperity, — Rome 
and its splendor have decayed, Greece has gone, 
and in later history, France has been shaken, and 
how I tremble for England. England ! exalted to 
the heavens ; the first nation which has ripened 
to her noon-day life side by side with her open 
Bible, — the highest privilege a nation has ever 
known, — I fear that Christ shall say of her, as 
He said of Capernaum of old, ' O, thou England, 
exalted to heaven with privileges, thou art cast 
down to hell.' I cannot shut my eyes to the 
burden of the testimony of that book, that this 
dispensation closes with solemn, overwhelming 
judgment. If I could I would, but I dare not; 
the mass of testimony by Christ is so overwhelm- 
ing. And I charge you, brethren, see to it that 
your wives, your children, your husbands, your 
fathers, your mothers, your brothers, your sisters, 



THE BREAD OF LIFE. 117 

have an appetite for Christ. The appetite for gold 
cannot live longer. The appetite for commerce 
has no place. The lusts, the desires, the passions, 
have no place there ; but God. 

Let that part of your being which shall live on, 
and on, in the splendor of that life which Christ 
imparts, let that be impregnated with Christ. Oh, 
brothers, sisters, children, young men and maidens, 
I plead with you, with all the energy of which my 
soul is capable, let not this manna, this Christ, 
come down from heaven, — and yet ask, like the 
Jews, a sign, while the bread is before you. Do 
not run away after petty side issues. I remember 
a young lady saying to me, as we were traveling 
together from London, " Oh, Mr. Varley, I am so 
anxious to be in the true Church." I said to her, 
"My sister, let me read to you;" and, taking my 
Bible from my pocket, I read to her these words: 
" While he yet talked to the people, behold, his 
mother and his brethren stood without, desiring 
to speak with him. Then one said unto him, Be- 
hold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, 
desiring to speak with thee. But he answered 
and said unto him that told him, Who is my 
mother ? and who are my brethren ? And he 
stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and 
said, Behold my mother and my brethren ! For 
whosoever shall do the will of my Father which 
is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, 
and mother." 

Where is salvation ? In the Church of Rome ? 
Yes ; in every man is salvation in whose heart 



Il8 THE BREAD OF LIFE. 

Christ dwells. Where is salvation — in the Church 
of England ? Yes ; in every heart where Christ 
dwells. Where is Christ, and where is Chris- 
tianity ? In the Wesley an Church ? Yes ; in just 
so many whose hearts enshrine Christ, and no 
more. Where is Christianity ? Among the Pres- 
byterians or the Baptists ? Yes ; if Christ is in 
the heart, but if not, their systems are a delusion 
and a snare, and may be to them eternal loss ; for 
there is many a man whose name is transcribed 
upon the register of the Church, who knows nothing 
about the life of Christ. There is a name — the 
name of Jesus — and to that common centre, by 
the impulse of the Spirit of God, men gravitate 
from every Church. You cannot divide them, for 
they are one. 

The Church of God is not a little band, kept 
together by the ipse dixit of some Church or body 
of bishops. Over China, India, Africa, Australia, 
Europe, and America, broods the mighty Spirit of 
God, and beneath His sheltering wing couches 
the entire Church of God, of every name, of every 
clime, of every color, for there shall be gathered 
from every nation, kindred, people and tongue, a 
numberless company who have fed upon God's 
life, — men and women to whom Christ is pre- 
cious. Oh, brethren, I give you my closing words 
in the Master's name: Are you feeding upon 
Christ's precious truth ? 

We sat, some of us, at the table of the Lord, 
and, as I tasted the bread and as the wine passed 
these lips, I thanked God for His Christ, that had 



THE BREAD OF LIFE. IIQ 

passed into the tissue and fibre of this being, and 
permeated it by His glorious life. " This is the 
bread, of which if a man eat he shall live for- 
ever." Matchless life ! Glorious bread ! O, Thou 
blessed God, to have opened Thy hands and scat- 
tered this eternal bread amongst the dying sons 
of men. The day is coming when we shall know, 
as we cannot know now, the glory of this life ; for 
now we see darkly, as through a glass, but then 
face to face. Now we know in part ; now abideth 
faith, hope and love ; but when the end shall have 
come, and you and I shall shake off the tabernacle 
of clay which keeps us here, we shall know then 
what is meant by living upon Christ. 

Would to God that every merchant, every stu- 
dent, every clerk, would give Christ the front ; 
that every politician would give Christ the front ; 
for this is the sum total : " I am Alpha and Omega, 
the beginning and the end, the first and the last." 
Blessed Christ ! Blessed Bread ! May my poor 
description of Thee entice hundreds to come out 
of their tent, and on their knees and in their souls, 
by the light of truth, pick up and eat that manna, 
and no longer feed upon the husks which the 
swine eat. I know that the devil has food for you. 
I know that there is a counterfeit of the wheat 
in the tares. I know it ; but in Christ's name I 
beseech you see to it that no false Christ keeps 
you from Christ. I leave these solemn weighty 
appeals which should tell upon your destiny for- 
ever: I leave them in the hand of the Eternal 
God, who has said, " My word shall not return 



120 



THE BREAD OF LIFE. 



unto Me void. For as the rain cometh down, 
and the snow from heaven, and returneth not 
thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it 
bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the 
sower, and bread to the eater : so shall My word 
be that goeth forth out of My mouth." 




NICODEMUS. 



HIS evening I propose to address* you from 
, thoughts contained in the third chapter of the 
ly Gospel of John, as touching the interview 
between Nicodemus and the Great Master ; and I 
shall endeavor to make my remarks, as far as I pos- 
sibly can, subserve the object of this meeting in the 
interest of young men. " There was a man of the 
Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews : 
The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto 
Him, Rabbi, we know that Thou art a teacher come 
from God : for no man can do these miracles that 
Thou doest, except God be with Him." What an 
important time has come in the history of a man, 
when his desire after a knowledge of the Lord Jesus 
Christ leads him to the Master Himself. Such a 
time as this had come to Nicodemus, and such a 
time I trust has come to many of you who arc found 

* This Address was delivered by Mr. Varley at the Seventh 
Anniversary Meeting of the Hamilton Young Men's Christian Asso- 
ciation, held in the Centenary Church, Hamilton, Canada, on .the 
evening of Friday, December 4, 1874. 

6* ( 121 ) 



122 NICODEMUS. 

in this house to-night. I want you now to notice 
how the Lord Jesus deals with Nicodemus. " Jesus 
answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say 
unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot 
see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto 
Him, How can a man be born when he is old ? can 
he enter the second time info his mother's womb, 
and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say 
unto thee, except a man be born of water and of 
the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of 
God." 

You will observe in these words, that there is 
apparently no connection between the question 
which is put by Nicodemus, and the answer given 
by the Lord. The reason of this I think is obvious. 
Nicodemus wanted Christ to do what many men in 
our day want Him to do. He wanted Christ to 
educate before converting ; and I assure you, my 
.friends, that the Master will never do that. He 
will bear with you ; He will be full of tenderness, 
and full of long suffering and gentleness ; but as 
surely as I am speaking to you to-night, the Master 
will deal with you in this peremptory way, as sud- 
denly as He did with Nicodemus : " Verily, verily, 
I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he 
cannot see the kingdom of God." The reason of 
this I will try and illustrate to you. What would 
you think of me were I to go to a teacher of eti- 
quette, and say to him : " Sir, I understand you are 
schooled in the laws of Court, and you teach kings 
and nobles how to demean themselves in the high 
places of the land : I want you to teach me how to 



NICODEMUS. 123 

wear a crown ; how to hold with becoming dignity 
a levee." "But pardon me," is the reply, "are you 
a king? " No." " You have no expectancy of the 
crown ? " " Not the least." " And you want me 
to educate you, do you!" Would not the absurdity 
of the thing justify his derisive laugh, as he turns 
and leaves you ? And yet, that is what thousands 
of men are wanting. They are wanting Jesus 
Christ to educate a lifeless being ; they arc wanting 
Him to dress up that which God rejects. "Verily, 
verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born 
again," there is no life to develop, there is not a 
man to teach or educate. There is not a soul 
listening to my voice who was born into the world 
with spiritual life ; it is not ours by hereditary 
right, by infant or adult baptism, by sprinkling or 
immersion. " He that hath the Son hath life" but 
he that hath not the Son of God, though he may be 
the mightiest intellect in the earth, though he may 
be the wisest of politicians, and have the largest 
perception of mundane affairs, though he may be as 
eloquent as Demosthenes, yet if he has not Christ, 
he is destitute of life. 

The Master's words generally strike home at once, 
and, by His sharp and keenly directed arrow, He 
has hit the centre of Nicodemus's mind. Nicode- 
mus has not misunderstood Him. Nicodemus said 
unto Him : " How can a man be born when he is 
old ? can he enter the second time into his mother's 
womb and be born ? " Jesus answered, " Verily, 
verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of 
water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the 



124 NICODEMUS. 

kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh 
is flesh ; and that which is born of the Spirit is 
spirit." Mark the sharp division here : " that which 
is born of the flesh is flesh," and, dear friends, you 
may do with it what you like — you may develop it, 
you may educate it, you may restrain it, you may 
circumcise it, you may teach it to pray, you may 
baptize it, you may bring it to the holy table of the 
Lord, you may put its name on the Church's book, 
— and when you have done all, it will remain flesh 
still. That which is born of the flesh remains flesh 
still, you can never alter it, and God has not de- 
signed its alteration. He has designed its judg- 
ment, He has designed its putting away, He has 
designed its rejection ; and the man who is in the 
Spirit can say, " Thank God, I am not in the flesh, 
but in the Spirit." 

Now notice again, " born of water and of the 
Spirit." Do you remember how, when the angel 
came to Mary, he said to her, " The power of the 
Highest shall overshadow thee : therefore also that 
holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be 
called the Son of God." Unless the Divine Spirit 
brood over you, and sow the seed of incorruptible 
truth in your heart, and that truth germinate there, 
you will never know what it is to be born again, 
nor enabled to say in the language of Peter, ' As a 
new born babe, I desire the sincere milk of the 
word that I may grow thereby.' The ministry of 
the Spirit of God alone can accomplish this, and 
therefore, when Nicodemus asks Jesus, listen to 
what He says : "The wind bloweth where itlisteth, 



NICODEMUS. 125 

and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not 
tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth : so is 
every one that is born of the Spirit." The wind ! 
There is not a child here but has felt its gentle play 
upon its face ; there is not one of us who has not 
watched its rustle among the million leaves of the 
forest, sometimes delicate as a fairy's wand ; but 
mark again its tempestuous power, as we see it 
swaying the mighty oak and driving the rolling 
waves of yonder Atlantic. And again, we have 
seen it swelling the hurricane and sweeping away 
with its tempestuous power aught which stands in 
its path. Who ever saw the source of the wind ? 
You say it is coming from the northeast, but where 
is the corner from whence it came ? It is passing 
us at the rate of forty or more miles an hour, and 
as you watch the movement of yon fleeting cloud, 
so it is with every one who is born of the Spirit. 
Oh ! what can your believer in " Eaptismal Regen- 
eration " say, by the side of such a doctrine as that ? 
What can your scientific theorist say, if he bend 
not to the teaching of Christ. It is a constant 
enigma that his understanding can never solve ; so 
simple, and yet so marvellous. Blessed be God, 
that that Divine Spirit is to-night brooding over 
every soul in this house. There is not one here 
to-night a stranger to the Spirit's power. He is 
carrying on His ministrations now. ' When He, 
the Spirit of Truth, is come, He shall reprove 
the world of sin." You cannot help thus being 
reproved. You cannot get away from it ; it is 
from the earthly to the sensual, and from the sen- 



126 NICODEMUS, 

sual to the devilish. You cannot stop at the 
earthly ; you cannot stop at the sensual. Just as 
certainly as the waters of yonder lake find their 
way to the mighty Atlantic, the earthly empties 
into the sensual, and the sensual into the devilish. 
The other way, the earthly has an upward tendency! 
from the earthly to the spiritual, and from the 
spiritual to the heavenly — that is God's plan — right 
up to the throne. 

And now once again note, " Born of water." 
Well, and what do you think that is ? The Lord 
Jesus said to the woman of Samaria at the well, 
" If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is 
that saith to thee, Give me to drink ; thou wouldcst 
have asked of Him, and He would have given thee 
living water." Now, I believe the water spoken of 
by Christ is the Word ; because the Word and 
the water are often used as synonymous terms. 
" Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way ? 
By taking heed thereto according to Thy Word ; " 
and then take that wonderful passage in the fifth 
of Ephesians : " As Christ also loved the church, 
and gave Himself for it ; that He might sanctify 
and cleanse it with the washing of water by the 
Word." A poor skeptic in London came to me 
not long ago, and said, " I have been an infidel 
lecturer, Mr. Varley, for years ; what can such a 
sinner as I do ? " I said, " My dear friend, let me 
bring to you the water of purity, and I shall pour 
it into your heart until it shall sluice out from it 
the vile thoughts which have been lodging and 
corroding there for years." It is the water of the 



NICODEMUS. 127 

Word, and if any man shall receive that water into 
his heart, I tell you, it shall cleanse the heart of the 
defilement which has been collecting there for 
years. " Except a man be born of water," or as the 
apostle Peter says — " Not of corruptible seed, but 
of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth 
and abideth for ever." 

I ask you, then, have you become possessed of 
that new life which Jesus came to impart to the 
sons of men ? Have you drank of that water ? 
Has that water put out the fever fires of sin, which 
were burning in your breast ? Oh ! I trust so. 
Young men, I beseech you remember that the life 
which Jesus has brought is a life of dignity ; it is a 
life of calmness ; it is a life of power ; it is a life 
which will help you to put your foot upon the neck 
of passion ; it is a life that, when understood, shall 
make it difficult to do wrong and easy to do right ; 
it is a life which, when you possess it, you shall find 
has in it a charm and fascination ; it is a life worthy 
of Jesus Christ to bring. Oh ! the excellency of 
it. " Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be 
born again." Some of us, who have known this 
life for years, can testify of its hold upon our 
character. We do not speak about holding the 
Life, but we speak of the Life holding us. " We 
love Him, because He first loved us." We are not 
surprised that we love Him with heart and soul 
and mind and strength, for one of the most essen- 
tial points in His character is this, that He is Love. 
It is His presence in us that is our joy and song 
from morning to night ; and as I have said before, 



128 NICODEMUS. 

I would, if I could, so spread this power over my 
life, that I should never think another thought or 
do another act in mine own strength. I beseech 
you, let your soul take possession cf that new life 
which God has given, and let us reject the old life, 
which is condemned and dead. 

As Nicodemus listens to His word, Jesus explains 
to Him : " And as Moses lifted up the serpent in 
the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be 
lifted up : that whosoever believcth in Him should 
not perish, but have eternal life." I quote this 
passage because of the two " musts." " Ye must 
be born again." " The Son of man must be lifted 
up." I believe these form a kind of conjunction. 
You must know the new life by looking at Jesus, 
who said, " I must be lifted up." 

" There is life in a look at the crucified One ; 
There is life at this moment for thee ; 
Then look, sinner, look unto Him and be saved, 
Unto Him who was nailed to the tree." 

Just as surely as you believe that Jesus died for you, 
you are dead to sin. Once crucified, then always 
dead. I beseech you, brethren, remember that the 
life which Christ has brought is to be our charm, 
our possession, and our glory forever ; and in that 
body that you and I shall soon possess, incorruptible 
and undefiled, which cannot fade, changed by His 
glorious body, in the inheritance which is waiting 
to be revealed, reserved in heaven for us, wc shall 
understand what it is to be clothed upon with this 
glorious life in Him. Oh ! Christian young men, I 
commend this to you, and as you go out amongst 



NICODEMUS. 129 

those who come to your city, keep this to the front. 
I tell you what is diminishing the power of our 
Young Men's Christian Associations greatly, is a 
sort of mongrel thing, half-spiritual, half- worldly. 
Some young men want the billiard table in their 
Rooms ; some of them in England want to know 
if it is not a wise thing to have beer there ! What 
we want in our day is a grand, clear conception 
of the manliness and vigor of true Christian life, 
not namby-pambyism, or such a caricature of the 
Christian man as we find put upon the stage — 
some long, gaunt fellow, six feet four inches in 
height, with his poor seedy coat buttoned close up 
to the neck as if he had no shirt beneath. Poor 
fellow, he is the very picture of cant. We hear 
men speak of the cant of Christians. I suppose 
there is not a particle of cant in their rejection of 
Christ ! I am ashamed of Charles Dickens to 
think that not a single character of a Christian 
man has he written but is a miserable caricature. 
As my dear friend Spurgeon once said : " Young 
men, be careful that you be manly and natural." 

And then, I would like to see you also have a 
definite object before you. I believe that one great 
curse in the Church is indefiniteness. I believe 
that young men ought to ask themselves this ques- 
tion : " Have I got a clear, definite view cf what 
Christianity is, or am I allowing year after year to 
pass by — and precious time is passing — and yet 
never thinking seriously cf these things ? " Have 
you been taken up with smoking, with the cultiva- 
tion of some worthless habit or some frivolous 



I30 NICODEMUS. 

pursuit ? I see so much of this in England, and 
not a little of it here. I never knew a man yet 
worth a dollar, who was a dandy. I am not speak- 
ing of money, for somehow or other these men do 
sometimes get hold of money ; but I mean what is 
in the man. I believe there is no development of 
character that can at all compare with the glorious 
fullness which the Lord Jesus Christ is prepared to 
impart. I like that type of character of which 
John the Baptist was the representative. I do not 
wonder that the Lord Jesus should say, " Among 
those that are born of women there is not a greater 
prophet than John the Baptist." Although he was 
a rough man and his words tremendously heavy, 
all Judea was held spell-bound by them, and there 
was a power about his rugged words which men 
felt. If there is a type of character I dislike, it is 
the " Oh yes, Mr. Varley, I quite agree with you " 
style of man. I do like a man, who, if he differs 
from you, says so to you, and one who can bear and 
forbear — a man in whom individuality is strongly 
marked ; not namby-pamby, without backbone — 
a man, that is what I mean. Says one, "An 
honest man 's the noblest work of God." I tell 
you, we might improve on that. A converted man 
— a man in whom Christ dwells — is the noblest 
work of God. 

Now, dear brethren, I am sure if you will carry 
out these thoughts of mine to-night, the world will 
not let you alone. I know there will be people 
studying you, and those who do not like your 
spirituality will put it down to hypocrisy. " Never 



NICODEMUS. 131 

you mind," do you keep straight on. I got a famous 
lesson some time since from a certain man of color, 
who used to go with his master to church. His 
master would sit down in church, and as was his 
wont, would have his note book before him, and 
when any good point struck him in the sermon, he 
would jot it down, which, by the way, is a very 
good practice. Sam, who, no doubt as you know — 
because you are nearer him here than w r e are on 
the other side — is apt to be a very imitative indi- 
vidual, and he was so delighted with the idea, that 
a few Sundays afterwards he provided himself with 
a pencil and book. You should have seen him with 
his shining face, bobbing head, note book and 
pencil. The preacher saw Sam taking notes, and 
was so delighted at his apparent interest, that when 
the service was over, he made his way down the 
aisle to Sam, and said, " Good morning." " Good 
mornin', massa." " I am delighted to see you so 
interested in the service." " Very interestin' in- 
deed, massa," replied Sam. " You take notes, 
Sam." " Indeed, massa, every gentleman takes 
notes." " Would you mind my seeing your notes. 
Sam ? " " No, massa, not in de least." Now it so 
happened that Sam could not write, and when he 
handed his note book to the minister, it was scrib- 
bled all over with pencil marks. The minister said, 
" Oh, Sam, this is all nonsense." " Oh! deah yes, 
massa, de berry thing I thought when you said it." 

Oh ! beloved brethren, do walk through this 
earth just a memento of what the grace of Christ 



132 N1C0DEMUS. 

can make you — that brain of yours a place in which 
the Lord Jesus Christ shall think. Does that 
startle you ? Not stronger than the Scripture puts 
it. Jesus Christ shall develop the most wonderful 
thoughts. I tell you to-night that thousands of 
the best thoughts I have ever given utterance to, 
never occurred to me until the moment I spoke. 
Some may say it is genius. I believe it is Christ in 
me. You say, perhaps, it is originality. I would 
not lay claim to that, but I would lay claim to the 
possession of Christ. Nor does it seem to be an 
extraordinary thing that He who fills yonder sun 
with light, should fill my brain with every thought I 
possess. I see Him clothing the beautiful earth with 
flowers, and spangling yonder heaven with stars ; 
and shall He do naught in the temple of this body ? 
Away with such thoughts ! If your heart be filled 
with the love of Christ, you will be no mean expo- 
nent of His character. You shall say with Paul, 
"For me to live is Christ." Let this be so, and 
there shall flow from your life results beautiful to 
think of, and you shall glorify the Master in it too. 

I shall close just with one thought, which, per- 
haps, some of you may not have noticed. You 
remember upon one occasion, when the work of 
John the Baptist was over — what a wonderful 
career it was ! — nine months, perhaps not more than 
eight, did his ministry last ; the most popular man 
in Judea; thousands listening to his lessons; his 
life gathered in that one brief seed-time and har- 
vest ; a wonderful life, the burden of it giving 
witness for Christ and testimony for Jesus — they 



NICODEMUS. 133 

came to Him and said : " Rabbi, he that was with 
Thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou barest witness, 
behold, the same baptizeth, and all men come to 
him." Why do they say this ? The most casual 
thinker will see that it was said to stir up John's 
envy. ' But a few weeks ago you were the mightiest 
man in all this region ; you bore witness to One 
who is called Christ, and now He is baptizing : He 
has taken the wind out of your sails.' He "to 
whom thou bearest witness, behold, the same bap- 
tizeth, and all men come to Him." Listen to 
John's reply : ' "A man can receive nothing, except 
it be given him from heaven. Ye yourselves bear 
me witness, that I said, I am not the Christ, but 
that I am sent before Him. He that hath the 
bride is the bridegroom : but the friend of the 
bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, re- 
joiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice." 
You have come to fill me with envy, but thus " my 
joy therefore is fulfilled." It is true, I got off the 
platform, and let the loveliness of my Master be 
seen. " He must increase, but I must decrease." ' 
Ah, sirs, is it any wonder that Christ should say, 
" Among them that arc born of women there hath 
not risen a greater than John the Baptist." Not a 
rich man, not lettered in the world's learning, not 
a politician, not a member of Parliament — No ; the 
sod, wherever it is, which covers that great and 
holy man's grave, speaks not of his interest in 
mundane affairs. There lies a man, rough in exte- 
rior, whose meat was locusts and wild honey, but 
who was baptized of the Spirit, and possessed of 
7 



134 NICODEMUS. 

the life of Christ ; he stands now in unsullied 
beauty before the shrine of his Master in heaven. 
Galilee is gone ; Jerusalem is laid in ruins, and the 
land trodden down just as Christ said it should be: 
but in the sparkling, dazzling eternity is the man 
John. He was willing to decrease here, that he 
might stand as a pillar in the temple of God, to go 
out no more forever. God grant that your life may 
be like his. 

Young men, see to it that you do not get out of 
the Royal Line. I was once visiting the wondrous 
cave of Matlock, and as we came up to the station, 
I saw an engine emerging from the distant tunnel. 
I said to my friends, " Yonder comes our train ; " 
but when it reached the platform, we found it was 
but a mineral train, carrying coal and iron, and so 
it was turned on to the side track. Why was this 
done ? To make room for yonder engine which is 
ccming out of the tunnel's mouth, carrying behind 
it living freight — carriages filled with men and 
women. I said to my companions, and this would 
I say to you, 'Be careful that you do not carry 
mere material, for if you do, God will turn you 
away. He will make room for the men and women 
who are freighted with living souls. On the Main 
Line mind that you keep ! ' Not money, but man ; 
not pleasure, but the will of God ; not earth, but 
heaven ! Write this inscription by the light of that 
glorious truth upon your life, and God shall bless 
you, and God, even our God, shall welcome you ! 



CHRIST'S MESSAGE TO PETER. 



s<k< 



MARK xvi. 7. 

BUT GO YOUR WAY, TELL HIS DISCIPLES AND PETER THAT HE 
GOETH BEFORE YOU INTO GALILEE. 

OU are aware that these words were spoken 
by the angel, and intended to comfort the 
sorrowing disciples, who were mourning the 
death of their Lord. I am not now dealing with 
the general aspect of the text, but the one thought 
which is suggested by the introduction of the 
Apostle Peter's name. Why did not Jesus, or the 
angel who was Christ's servant, say, "Go tell my 
disciples and John " ? Why did he not do that ? 
John rested on the bosom of the Lord. John was 
most intimate with Jesus, and I suppose, indeed, 
the only one of the disciples who followed the 
Master to the Cross. 

In the nineteenth chapter of John, twenty-fifth 

and twenty-sixth verses, you will find these words : 

" Now there stood by the cross of Jesus His 

mother, and His mother's sister, Mary the wife 

(135) 



136 Christ's message to peter. 

of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene, * * * and the 
disciple standing by, whom He loved." So far 
as I know there is no account of the presence of 
any other of the disciples ; yet you see the Lord 
does not send the message to John. Why ? I feel 
that there is a great and deep reason why, and I 
want to talk to you about that reason, in order that, 
supposing there should be present any of us who 
are conscious of having, like Peter, denied our Lord, 
we may get a wonderful restoration. I do not know 
that I could desire any thing higher than that you 
should leave this house without the shadow of a 
cloud between you and the Lord. 

Now doubtless it may be familiar to you that the 
very last time that Peter had seen the Lord Jesus, 
was at the very time that he betrayed Him ; — be- 
trayed Him in terrible oaths. Let us look for a 
moment at the fourteenth chapter of Mark, sixty- 
sixth verse : 

"And as Peter was beneath in the palace, there cometh 
one of the maids of the high priest : and when she saw Peter 
warming himself, she looked upon him, and said, And thou 
also wast with Jesus of Nazareth. But he denied, saying, I 
know not, neither understand I what thou sayest. And he 
went out into the porch ; and the cock crew. And a maid 
saw him again, and began to say to them that stood by, This 
is one of them. And he denied it again. And a little after, 
they that stood by said again to Peter, Surely thou art one of 
them ; for thou art a Galilean, and thy speech agreeth thereto. 
But he began to curse and to swear, saying, I know not this 
man of whom ye speak. And the second time the cock crew. 
And Peter called to mind the word that Jesus said unto him, 
Before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice. And 
when he thought thereon, he wept." 



CHRIST S MESSAGE TO PETER. 1 37 

He never saw his loving Master again until after 
His resurrection : and I want to show you, dear 
friends, that although Peter had betrayed and denied 
his Lord, yet the love of the Lord Jesus Christ con- 
tinued towards Peter, and that is why the angel was 
commissioned and received the testimony cf the 
Lord Himself : " Go tell My disciples and Peter ! " 
Oh ! though we deny Him, it is certain He abideth 
faithful. How utterly unlike any thing human this 
is. If it were, the message would have been : " Is 
this My chiefest follower ? Is this the mode of 
treatment at the hour of My trial and humiliation ? 
Let it be so ; he is utterly unworthy of My love. I 
have borne with him month after month, and year 
after year, but the climax is now reached. Plence- 
forth we are strangers." I think of the agony of 
Peter's mind. He had no means of ascertaining 
what the Lord thought about it. Had he gone to 
the sepulchre he would have seen the lips of the 
Lord closed in death ; he could not get a word from 
Him as to what Lie thought of his denial, and yet 
in that wonderful love, in that love which passeth 
the love of the mother for her child, in that love 
which is changeless, of which the prophet sings, "I 
have loved thee with an everlasting love," He sends 
out upon this fair morning of the resurrection — the 
morning on which the powers of hell had been de- 
stroyed forever : ' Go, tell my disciples and Peter, 
that He goeth before you.' Now, beloved friends, 
let that thought suffice for the suggestion of my 
theme. 

I want, next, to show you that the Lord Jesus 



138 Christ's message to peter. 

not only went, as His word declared, but that He 
really found Peter ; and mark, a special messenger 
is sent to make Peter acquainted with the fact that 
the Lord Jesus Christ has searched him out. Can 
we by the testimony of the Scriptures — -(for the 
longer I am a preacher the longer do I desire to get 
into all my testimony, exposition) — find out from 
the Word of God whether the Lord Jesus Christ 
carried out this, His intention ? Now turn with me 
to the twenty-fourth chapter of the gospel of Luke, 
where there is a verse, (the thirty-third,) which will 
throw some light upon the subject : " And they rose 
up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and 
found the eleven gathered together, and them that 
were with them, saying, The Lord is risen indeed, 
and hath appeared to Simon." Now mark the word 
there, "The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared 
unto Simons 

A still stronger corroboration is found in the 
fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians, fifth verse : 
"And that He was seen of Cephas, then of the 
twelve." Not of the twelve and then of Cephas. 
Why this order ? For this simple reason : Imagine 
the Lord Jesus gathering together into that room 
about which we read, Peter, James, John and the 
other disciples, all conscious of the fact of the 
denial of Peter. They had doubtless some of them 
heard the oaths and curses with which he had 
denied his Lord. What a mortifying position. It 
seems to me if I had been Peter, I could not have 
stood in that place. How could I, for the first 
time, see my Lord ? No ; not the public rebuke, but 



CHRIST S MESSAGE TO PETER. 1 39 

the private restoration : that is the order of divine 
love. 

Now let me ask you, is not this in harmony with 
the Master's own precious way ? Perhaps you will 
say to me, " I had not read in the Word about Jesus 
Christ having a private interview with Peter." I 
pointed it out to you, " The Lord is risen indeed 
and has appeared unto Simon." If you will turn 
with me to the eighteenth chapter of Matthew, 
fifteenth verse — I want that this should become an 
example to us : — " Moreover if thy brother shall 
trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault 
between thee and him alone : if he shall hear thee, 
thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not 
hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that 
in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word 
may be established. And if he shall neglect to 
hear them, tell it unto the church." 

Is it not lovely? — and in the example which I 
have cited to you we have the precious truth of the 
course pursued by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. 
Oh ! how I would like, if I could, to have seen the 
meeting between those two ; the loving Master and 
the penitent Peter!-— the Master, with that long 
suffering sympathy and tenderness, just resting on 
Peter yonder, and that strange impulsive nature of 
Peter's, looking at his Lord. O ! that wretched, 
dread spirit of denial that possessed him, — how he 
loathes himself. I doubt not he wept at the feet 
of his Lord; I doubt not he poured out again, as 
he had done before, the sorrow of heart that pos- 
sessed him. And thus the Lord Jesus has given 



I4O CHRIST S MESSAGE TO PETER. 

to us a striking example of the way in which the 
divine love pursues its object. He does not even 
suffer the great item and fact of death to alter it. 

I call your attention to the love of the Lord Jesus 
for Peter, when He called him, when He bore with 
his waywardness, after Peter denied Him in the 
judgment hall; many waters cannot quench it, 
— death has no power to alter it, — and O ! the joy 
which ought to come to us that the same blessed 
Christ is with us now. There is not a phase of 
tenderness which attached to Him on earth but 
belongs to Him now. Are some of you carrying 
up to this point the memory of some great trans- 
gression ; have you been on your faces weeping 
about it ? Let this be the day that from henceforth 
you weep no more. The Master's love is such that 
as you sit here you may have the restoration, even 
as Peter had it, while you listen to the voice of His 
love, and when you come to your holy communion 
season you may take your places with the highest 
amongst those who love Him, conscience at rest, 
all healed ; and having peace under the restoring 
power of His love, you will know the blessing of 
this scene by having it re-enacted. 

Again, let me remind you of this : that the Lord 
Jesus has given us an example that we should follow 
in His steps. I do not know that anything ever 
made me feel more deeply my utter nothingness as 
a Christian, than a talk I had a short time ago with 
a beloved Christian brother in England. I knew 
him well and had a great regard for him. He was 
a public man, and like most public men now-a-days, 



Christ's message to peter. 141 

continually being charged with all kinds of things ; 
and when chatting with him one day, he said to me, 
"O ! my dear brother, I cannot tell you the joy that 
it is to me to entirely forgive each one. I cannot 
tell you the intense pleasure I feel in going into 
the presence of my Father in prayer, and saying, 
' O, my Father, do Thou bless these.' " I never felt 
so small as I did in the presence of that man ; and 
yet it is what the Master tells us : " Pray for them 
which despitefully use you, * * * that ye may be the 
children of your Father which is in heaven." 

Beloved friends, I tell you there could be no 
brighter thing happen to us to-day than to be com- 
pletely submerged in the love of God. Are not all 
of us conscious of the danger to which we are 
exposed in our Christian life, coming into contact 
with those whom we ought to forgive, and do not. 
You may say, " I am righteously indignant." Very 
well. Keep it, and you will see that it will corrode 
your spiritual life. O ! the boundless forgiveness 
of God. What a paradise it would make this land, 
from one end to the other, if the spirit of divine 
forgiveness had but its mighty play in the hearts of 
all God's people. 

At the close of the twelfth chapter of First 
Corinthians, we find the Apostle saying, " But covet 
earnestly the best gifts, and yet show I unto you a 
more excellent way." Now those of you who are 
familiar with Corinthians, well know that the twelfth 
chapter is taken up with spiritual gifts, and the 
fourteenth is taken up with the order of worship, 
the manner in which our assemblies are to be con- 



142 Christ's message to peter. 

ducted, etc. What is the thirteenth ? Do you ob- 
serve — some ol you may smile at what I am going 
to say — that the thirteenth comes in between the 
twelfth and fourteenth. How very natural it is, but 
mark the thirteenth chapter is studded with the 
more excellent way ; better than the gift and order : 
— the love. Do not forget it. I know many men 
who have the gift, and order, but not the love. I 
am sure I have known some Christian men having 
for every pound of knowledge only two ounces of 
love. I do not mind sitting at a distance and hear- 
ing what they have to say — so angular, so precise, 
and so much order. I tell you what you want done 
with your gift and order. Like gold possessed of 
iron, you want to come and put them into the fire 
of the thirteenth chapter, and then they will be 
workable. You never can work them well until 
you do. It is as though God should say to you: 
" My dear children, I come to you upon the first 
Sabbath of the year, and offer you that grace which, 
if you but possess, will enable you to supply every 
demand made upon you. You may be misunder- 
stood ; fair motives will be judged falsely ; you will 
come into contact with brethren that you will find 
human, and surly, and ignorant, and wanting in 
tenderness ; but I give to you that of which it is 
written; 'it suffereth long and is kind, envieth not, 
vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not be- 
have itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not 
easily provoked, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not in 
iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth ; beareth all things, 
believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all 



CHRIST S MESSAGE TO PETER. 143 

things. Prophecies shall fail, tongues shall cease, 
but love shall never fail' " O ! that each of you 
may receive more and more of this " excellent way." 

Had the Master left Peter alone, what about 
Pentecost, what about those three thousands of 
souls gathered by one simple testimony of that 
restored man ? I tell you it were worth a fall to 
know the restoring love of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
I say it not to make you careless about sin — God 
forbid I should — yet I pity the man who has not 
experienced himself the divine forgiveness. For- 
bear one another, and forgive one another, even as 
God for Christ's sake has forgiven us. I fear many 
of us have not pushed out into the depths of the 
divine love. It is spoken of in this wise : " That 
ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able 
to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, 
and length, and depth, and height : and to know the 
love of Christ, which passeth knowledge." It strikes 
me some of us have been like children playing on 
the beach of our great Father's love, rather than 
pushing off on the depths, and lengths, and breadths 
and heights of it. 

Brethren, I believe it is just this we want to make 
our characters lovely. I believe there is many a 
man of business who, if he really possessed this, 
would bring to his Master many other children. I 
know what business is. I have had some experi- 
ence in the old country. I know how the markets, 
and ups and downs of business, hammer a man 
into hardness. Dear brother Moody says : " They 
think so little of gold in the world to come, that 



144 CHRIST S MESSAGE TO PETER. 

they make paving stones of it." O ! that you and 
I may realize that there is only one thing that 
abides. " Nov/ abideth faith, hope, love, * * * but 
the greatest of these is love." And thus may it be 
throughout all these years. Let us be careful not 
to utter words cf unkindness to others. I pray you 
bear a word cf exhortation here. It seems to me 
that one of the weaknesses of our Christian life is 
the disposition and tendency which many Christians 
possess, to say some unkind thing about their fel- 
low Christians. If you cannot say something that 
is kind, — very well, then be quiet. 

You know that in the tabernacle service there was 
always a pair of golden snuffers and golden snuff 
dishes, but no extinguishers. Some Christians 
seem to me as if they would all the time like to be 
extinguishing their fellow Christians. We do not 
want anything of that kind. And mark what I say 
to you : the snuffers were made of pure gold ; not a 
rusty old pair, worth but two-pence. Some people 
have got a little idea of snuffing, and they take the 
impressions of somebody's character, and carry the 
foul, smoking stuff into some friend's house. I 
charge you, beloved, beware. In the snuff dish 
there was a little indentation, about three-fourths of 
an inch in depth and one inch square, in order 
that a small quantity of water might always be kept 
in it. As soon as the light was snuffed the ex- 
cresence was taken to that water and the offence at 
once stayed. How full of teaching. 

Let us be careful ! I do not mean to say that 
there are not times in which it may be well for you 



CHRIST S MESSAGE TO PETER. I45 

and me in faithful love to speak to others ; but let 
us so seek to remove the excresence, that the light 
of the brother or sister may shine more brightly. 
Let us put away all evil, let us quench it in the 
waters of our love ; for it is written, " charity shall 
cover a multitude of sins." O ! that these simple 
thoughts, given you from the precious mine of truth, 
may bring an abundant faith in your life, and in my 
own, to His praise. Amen. 

7* 




THE PRODIGAL SON 



>XKc 



LUKE XX. II, AND FOLLOWING VERSES. 

Y Dear Friends : — I shall ask your atten- 
tion at this time to the Parable of the Prodi- 
AWM gal Son. And, first of all, I will read to 
you my theme. 

And He said, A certain man had two sons : And the 
younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the 
portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided 
unto them his living. 

And not many days after, the younger son gathered all 
together, and took his journey into a far country, and 
there wasted his substance with riotous living. And 
when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in 
that land ; and he began to be in want. And he went 
and joined himself to a citizen of that country ; and he 
sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would 
fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did 
eat : and no man gave unto him. 

And when he came to himself, he said, How many 
hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to 
spare, and I perish with hunger ! I will arise and go to 
(146) 



THE PRODIGAL SON. 1 47 

my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned 
against heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy 
to be called thy son : make me as one of thy hired 
servants. 

And he arose, and came to his father. But when he 
was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had com- 
passion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. 
And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against 
heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be 
called thy son. 

But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best 
robe, and put it on him ; and put a ring on his hand, 
and shoes on his feet : and bring hither the fatted calf, 
and kill it ; and let us eat, and be merry : for this my 
son was dead, and is alive again ; he was lost, and is 
found. And they began to be merry. 

Now his elder son was in the field : and as he came 
and drew nigh to the house, he heard music and danc- 
ing. And he called one of the servants, and asked what 
these things meant. And he said unto him, Thy brother 
is come ; and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, 
because he hath received him safe and sound. And he 
was angry, and would not go in : therefore came hio 
father out, and entreated him. And he answering said 
to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither 
transgressed I at any time thy commandment ; and yet 
thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry 
with my friends : but as soon as this thy son was come, 
which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast 
killed for him the fatted calf. And he said unto him, 
Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. 
It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad : 
for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again ; and was 
lost, and is found. 



I40 THE PRODIGAL SON. 

Now, let me first of all remind you, that this 
passage is generally applied to those who are un- 
believers. I shall not so use it now. I have no 
doubt, that a very serviceable application may be 
made, from that point of view, but that is not the 
primal form. You cannot fail to see the force of 
the explanation : " A certain man had two sons." 
I have no doubt their experience represents, to a 
large extent, the experience of many thousands of 
God's people, after they are regenerated. I know 
that after I have said all that I have to say, the 
overtopping height of the chapter is, The unfailing 
grace of the Father. If Jesus had not said these 
boys were sons, I never should have thought it, 
they are so unlike their father. " The younger of 
them said to his father, Father, give me the portion 
of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto 
them his living." How wonderfully gracious is 
God in His providential mercies to His people. 
How freely He opens His hand to every living 
creature. 

You have often heard of the fall of this younger 
son, but I wish you to realize that his fall was in his 
father's house. Any man who wants God's goods 
instead of His presence, is a fallen man, whether 
he knows it or not. " Give me the portion of 
goods that falleth to me." What a condition this 
must betoken in that son's heart. I charge you to 
beware of the creation of a separate interest. God 
did not redeem you to go away from Him, but that 
you might live ever before Him ; and yet how true 
it is, you find many men, though God's children, 



THE PRODIGAL SON. I49 

that can conduct their commercial affairs as though 
God had no part in them. Men forget their hon- 
esty, spending large sums of money without a 
thought that they are stewards. From this time, 
I beg you to have no separate interest from Him 
who holds all things in His hand, — from the living 
God. If you do not cat and drink to God's glory ; 
if you separate yourself from Him in anything, 
you are violating the sweet relationship common 
to all. Now, no sooner does this younger son 
find himself possessed of the goods, than he finds 
he has alienated his mind — he has emptied his 
mind of the father, to make way for the wretched 
goods. 

"And not many days after, the younger son gath- 
ered all together, and took his journey into a far 
country." I thank God for that word ; there is no 
such thing as a little departure from God, — no such 
thing as a little sin. As he goes away from his 
father's house, you cannot find a trace of his father's 
presence. When the boy comes back, the canvas 
is literally filled with his father, but there is not an 
inch of ground occupied by the father as the boy 
goes away. Mark you, all departure from God is 
purely voluntary. God never shakes hands with 
one of His children to bid them good bye ; He 
never stands on the departing side ; He is on the 
arriving side, ready to welcome the wanderer. Oh, 
that I could leave with you this determination, 
never to speak of God. as though He were absent. 
Listen to the strong words of the fourteenth chap- 
ter of John : " If a man love Me, he will keep My 



150 THE PRODIGAL SON. 

words : and My Father will love him, and we will 
come unto him, and make our abode with him." 
If the regenerated heart is not the home of God, — 
if He does not say, ' I will never forsake thee,' our 
Christianity is little better than a myth. Thank 
God, we have heard Him say, " Blessed is the man 
whom Thou choosest, * * * that he may dwell in 
Thy presence." I never expect to spend another 
moment with the idea of the absence of God in 
this heart, till I see Him face to face. An absent 
God! going away after goods! May God purge 
our hearts of this damnable delusion held by the 
children of God. — And now, he is gone. 

I am not going to say much about the expression, 
"In riotous living;" you have heard a good deal 
about that. It is a dark verse, but not so dark as 
where he asks his father for the goods, — not so 
dark, because it is at the other end of night, the 
darkness that precedes the dawn. " And when he 
had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that 
land ; and he began to be in want." Oh, how glad 
I am, how thankful ! I would that I could bring you 
to the sense of famine. Perhaps some of you say, 
' You have not touched my experience ; I have not 
wasted my goods.' Perhaps not ; but you have a 
cold heart, you are living at a distance from your 
Father. So have numbers of you who profess and 
call yourselves Christians, and you go after the 
theatre and dancing and novels, in order to make 
up for what you think the poverty of Christianity. 
What, not satisfied with Jesus ! not finding in Him 
fullness of blessing ! Oh, I pray you be careful. 



THE PRODIGAL SON. 151 

" Take heed lest there be in you an evil heart of 
unbelief in departing from the living God." 

Let me remind you, that when that famine came, 
it was a severe one. Think of it ; a child of God 
living down among the swine ! Ask yourselves to- 
day, which is your country. " I seek a better," 
said Abraham, "even a heavenly." Cain builded a 
city here, but do you think Abraham built a city 
here ? No, he never bought an inch of ground 
except to bury his wife in ; he was a stranger and 
a pilgrim on earth. Let me beseech you to realize 
this, — your citizenship is in heaven : and come down 
out of your chamber, morning by morning, with 
the spirit of the better life and the glory of the 
future written on your brow. That is what is 
wanted, the power of the life of Christ as a fountain 
of living water. 

And now, poor fellow, I think I can see him waking 
up, as I wish to God others would wake up. Listen ; 
" In my father's house is bread enough and to 
spare." Yes, that is right, you have no thought of 
the famine reaching your father's house. His judg- 
ment is all right at that point, and although he is 
deeply fallen, yet truth holds him still ; and he 
says, " I will arise and go to my father, and will 
say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, 
and before thee, and am no more worthy to be 
called thy son : make me as one of thy hired ser- 
vants." Every man who holds a separate interest 
from God, is sinning against heaven, — and mark 
the form, " sinning against heaven and before thee ; 
I am no more worthy to be called thy son : make 



152 THE PRODIGAL SON. 

me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose, 
and came to his father." Notice the resolve made, 
and the resolve carried into execution. As Young 
says, in his Night Thoughts, a man at thirty sus- 
pects he is a fool ; at forty he knows it ; at fifty 
resolves and re-resolves, and dies the same. Oh, 
prodigal children, come home ! You sat at the table 
of your Lord, perhaps, but yesterday ; come back 
not only to the table, but to the heart of your Christ. 
And now observe, " And he arose, and came to 
his father. But when he was yet a great way off " 
— he went into a far off land, but, blessed be God, — 
"when he was yet a great way off, his father saw 
him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his 
neck, and kissed him." I have sometimes thought, 
that had I been a prodigal son, well nigh breaking 
my father's heart, perhaps the most difficult part 
of the return would be to come up the garden walk 
to the front door, — it might be on some winter's 
night, — and being almost afraid to put my hand on 
the knocker. I have always felt that part of the 
return would be most difficult ; perhaps to see my 
father's shadow reflected on the blind. And how 
these thoughts would come: How will he receive 
me ? What will he say to me ? But mark, the 
Lord saves His returned children all that part, — 
"for when he was yet a great way off, his father 
saw him." I do not believe that the eyes of the 
father had been off his boy in one sense, since his 
departure. Oh, I pray you, come home, prodigal 
children, for your Father waits to receive you, nay, 
He runs. 



THE PRODIGAL SON. 1 53 

What a wonderful thought it is ! To-day, I 
doubt not that in the serene quiet of His throne, 
He sits unmoved by all yonder planets and stars 
whirling in their orbits. The sun, the world, the 
great material universe goes on, and not a single 
feature of the divine face is ruffled ; but let some 
wanderer desire to return, and the blessed God will 
leave His throne, and run out and fall on his neck. 
Wonderful teaching this ! I pray that it may come 
with the power of the Spirit of God to your hearts. 

And now notice, the son says, " Father, I have 
sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no 
more worthy to be called thy son." He had come 
to himself ; before this he had been beside himself. 
When the world sees a man becoming anxious 
about spiritual things, the world says, he is going 
mad; but when Christ sees a man coming to Him, 
He says, his madness is over. If the world is 
right, then God is wrong ; but if God be right, the 
world is wrong indeed. And his father said, "Bring 
forth the best robe, and put it on him ; and put a 
ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet." What ! 
then he had not given him all before ? No ; the 
father has in reserve the best things. " And bring 
hither the fatted calf:" note this word — the fatted 
calf ; not one that is being fatted. God was ready 
and prepared. 

In Nottinghill, where I reside, I have a wealthy 
friend, who has, hanging in his dining-room, a 
picture of the prodigal son. In the centre of the 
canvas stands the father, with his long and vener- 
able beard, and his rich crimson robe, testifying to 



154 THE PRODIGAL SON. 

the dignity of his position ; and there lying upon 
his breast, is the poor tattered boy ; his bare legs 
tell of the weary way, and as he rests upon his 
father's bosom, his eyes are upturned, and you can 
see the tears standing in them ; and there stands a 
woman on one side, with arms filled with robes, 
and another with the shoes ; and in the back- 
ground is a man bringing in the fatted calf ; and 
listen, "Let us eat, and be merry: for this my son 
was dead, and is alive again ; he was lost, and is 
found." Oh Christ, save this people from having 
any single interest away from Thee ! Let us not 
be dead to Thee, for we are to live with Thee for 
ever. Eternity is begun. Our Father in heaven 
hath left us to shine as lights in the darkness. Oh 
God, let not one of Thy children be dead towards 
Thee ! And now, they begin to make merry. 
How beautiful that is ; there is no talk about leav- 
ing off, you see. I am glad for that word ; I am 
thankful for it. God understands merriment. To 
many men, God is a cast-iron being, with a rod in 
His hand. How I would like to smash that idea 
into atoms. And now notice, you will see no refer- 
ence to the atonement of Christ in this chapter, for 
it is taken for granted that the relationship of these 
children will bring it to mind. 

" Now his elder son was in the field : and as he 
came and drew nigh to the house, he heard music 
and dancing." Methinks if I were to go to my 
father's house, and heard music and dancing, I 
should not care to call a servant and ask its mean- 
ing. "Thy brother is come; and thy father hath 



THE PRODIGAL SON. 155 

killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him 
safe and sound." What, not a word about the loss 
of character or property ? Is that what God says ? 
Why, sirs, what is property to the boy ? What 
does God think of money in comparison with the 
soul ? God grant that all may learn the truth of 
the importance of the souls of men. I would 
rather have spoken the last few weeks to the people 
of your cities, than have transacted the commerce 
of the world for the last fifty years. Sunday School 
teachers, remember the glory of your work ; let 
not your service be lukewarm, and God will bless 
you in your labor. 

Some of my hearers may say to themselves, 'You 
have not sketched my character in the younger 
son.' Well, perhaps I shall find you in the elder. 
This son was living with his father, and no doubt 
he was exceedingly scrupulous about the hedges, 
for he did not want the neighbors' cattle in his 
father's garden. After coming in from the field, 
he hears music, and asks the reason of it. " Oh, 
thy brother is come ! " " What is that to me ? " 
We have hundreds of so-called Christians in the 
church, who, while they will give thousands of dol- 
lars to build a material structure, have not a tithe 
of interest in the saving of souls. I have known 
parents — I have in my mind this moment such 
parents — as cold-hearted as that. A dear girl said 
to me, "Can you tell me if I am a Christian?" 
"Why do you ask? " I said. " I have been a mem- 
ber of this church for six years," and she burst into 
tears. " You understand me, sir, I don't want to 



156 THE PRODIGAL SON. 

speak a word against my dear papa and mamma ; 
but at home we never say one word about this 
thing from month's end to month's end." 

There is nothing to compare with the coldness 
of the elder son. Oh, sirs, a " sneak thief " is an 
honest man to such a spirit as that. And notice, 
"He was angry, and would not go in: therefore 
came his father out, and entreated him." That 
word out, bespeaks it. The father — blessed be God 
— the father came out and entreated him ; and " he 
answering said to his father, Lo, these many years 
do I serve thee." What ! do I read this aright ? 
Oh, I see, I understand : I thought you were a son, 
but you serve; aye, you are a servant! I serve 
thee many years. You miserable fellow, — "serve 
thee," — the old carping spirit of the old Pharisees 
brought to life. " I serve thee, neither transgressed 
I at any time thy commandment," that other boy 
did, but 1 never, "and yet thou never gavest me a 
kid." Do you see the comparison between the kid 
and the calf ? Why, you wretch, if you had a kid, 
1 don't think you have got two friends that you 
could invite to dinner. Out upon you, son, as 1 
think of these things, for they are most melancholy 
and terribly true. But listen ; the father says, 
" Son, thou art ever with me," — you see he is not 
moved one particle, — "and all that I have is thine. 
It was meet that we should make merry, and be 
glad." It was meet, do you hear this, elder son ? 
Oh, you miserable, carping fellow ! " Devoured thy 
living with harlots !" How do you know that ? I ask 
each serving one of you, if you have never done it 



THE PRODIGAL SON. 1 57 

before, just come and say, Lord, I am ashamed of 
myself, for ever having any separate interests from 
Thee. I will never dare to believe for one moment 
of my future life, that Thou art absent from me. 
On the cold stones of the London market, buying 
sheep and bullocks, I recall those times when I 
have had the most blessed communion with God. 
Blessed unity, from this time never separate again. 
The Lord strengthen you ! God the Spirit reveal 
to you the Father, and from this time may you 
never acknowledge a separate interest from Him 
who says, " I ascend to My Father and your Father, 
and to My God and your God ! " Amen. 
8 




THE TWENTY-THIRD PSALM. 



>^c 



|fO doubt you are all familiar with this Psalm. 
The word of God is an inexhaustible mine of 
truth. When we read any other book often, 
no matter how good, it tires, but not so the Word 
of the living God. It is intended to show us, that 
God's Word was not intended to be considered with 
the intelligence alone ; it is a living power, and it 
needs to be read, marked, learned, and inwardly 
digested, and a continual desire for God's Word is 
the chief characteristic of the true child of God. 
Christ, in the integrity of His character, is em- 
bodied in this book, and in proportion as we make 
its truths our own, in the same proportion docs it 
change us from glory to glory. 

"The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want." 
Why does David, the sweet singer of Israel, say 
he shall not want ? Is it because he is chief 
magistrate of the people ? Millions of money were 
gathered by the Psalmist, in order to erect Solo- 
mon's temple, and yet so intrenched by position 
and wealth, he does not say that he shall not want 
(158) 



THE TWENTY-THIRD PSALM. 1 59 

because of his position, but because of the faithful- 
ness of the Lord. The argument that applied to 
the Psalmist, applies with equal force to us. The 
reason we may say we shall not want, is because 
the Lord is our shepherd ; because His faithfulness 
fails not. It is this; — Jesus said, ' Your heavenly 
Father knoweth ye have need of these things; and 
which of you by taking thought can add one cubit to 
your stature ? If ye are not able then to do the 
things which are least, why take thought for the 
rest ? ' Christ said, ' Consider the lilies of the field, 
they toil not, neither do they spin ; yet I say unto 
you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not 
arrayed like one of these.' Oh, let us, more joyfully 
looking into the future, say, I shall not want, be- 
cause the Lord is my shepherd. He gives, not 
because of our poverty, but of His wealth. Don't 
let unbelief project troubles into the future ! Un- 
belief can foresee coming difficulties that never 
come at all. I venture to say, you have all had 
such experiences as these. 

A word about the shepherd. The Lord Jesus 
Christ says, " I am the good shepherd ; the good 
shepherd giveth His life for the sheep." We are 
"the sheep of His pasture," then, because He has 
bought us with His precious blood ; not for any- 
thing we have done or can do. Nothing of that 
kind on our part can establish any relationship 
between us and Him. 

We are not only His by purchase, but because 
God has made us ; and we arc kept by Him as the 
delegated depository of Christ, who prayed, " Holy 



l60 THE TWENTY-THIRD PSALM. 

Father, keep through Thine own name those whom 
I have committed to Thee." It is one of the 
profound stays of my being, that in my utter weak- 
ness, I am yet Christ's deposit in the hands of the 
eternal Father, and He has asked Him to keep me. 
"The Lord is my shepherd." It is part of a shep- 
herd's business to keep. 

" He maketh me to lie down in green pastures : 
He leadeth me beside the still waters." Notice the 
present tense in this Psalm : — that word " maketh." 
It is as though the hand of God had been put on 
the head of His child in his unrest and disquiet. 
He knows that the journey is too great ; knows our 
dependence on Him, and maketh us lie down and 
rest. And turning back in your experience, you 
should not be surprised at this. " He maketh me." 
Why ? Because He knows how wearing our 
sorrow becomes ; because His joy is too great for 
us. Look at the lowliness of the position, — the 
dependence, — but it is in green pastures, not in a 
wilderness : there the fragrant herbage is springing 
on every side; and by "the still waters," where the 
water of life, like a broad river, is meandering its 
way beside the pathway of human history. Blessed 
is the man who trusts his Lord, for he shall be like 
a tree planted near the water, stretching out its 
roots to the river. " Ye shall not care for the year 
of drought," think of that ! Not safe for a week, or 
a month, or a year, but forever ! When the earth 
is dry and the rain does not come, there is the 
secret supply from the river, and where all else fails, 
there is no failure here, if it is by the still waters. 



THE TWENTY-THIRD PSALM. l6l 

"He restoreth my soul." How beautiful that 
word is. He does it now. Is there one here who 
has the consciousness that he is far from being 
restored. Perhaps he has been trodden down, 
trying to bloom in some desolate place. Do I 
speak to a dear child in the midst of an uncon- 
verted family ? Do I speak to a wife who finds 
her path difficult? Do I speak to a backslider? 
Let me tenderly talk to you. In a meeting I 
attended near London, among the crowd I noticed 
a man standing near a pillar. I saw the interest 
on his face, and was pained to see him leave with 
the rest when the meeting was ended. That night, 
as I was going to London, I met this man at the 
station ; how delighted I was. I said, " Arc you a 
child of God ? " He answered, " I was once." 
" What do you mean," said I, " God is not apt to 
turn His children adrift." He replied ; " Twelve 
years ago I had a fall, through drink." " What," I 
asked, " and in twelve years have you never been 
restored ? " " Yes," he answered, " but my life has 
been in doubt." I found he was going in the same 
direction that I was, and I invited him into the 
carriage with me. 

Taking out this book, I opened it to the passage 
] am dwelling on now, " Lie restoreth my soul," and 
said to him : — "I bring God's word of faith to you, 
adapted to your experience, not as an inquirer, 
but as a backslider. That is His remedy for your 
preseut condition. I pray you, believe He res- 
toreth your soul, because He says so, and I am as sure 
as we are riding to-night together, that you will be 



1 62 THE TWENTY-THIRD PSALM. 

restored." He hesitated, thinking it too good to be 
true. I said, " Suppose you have a daughter about 
eighteen years old, who has given you a good deal 
of trouble the last year ; suppose she has confessed 
her wickedness to her mother, and you are aware 
of it ; what would you say ? Would you say, Dear 
wife, let us restore her in six months?" "No," 
said the man. " In three months ? " said I. " No." 
"In one month?" " No, immediately." "Oh!" I 
replied, "you are better than the Lord, are you? 
Come, my brother, you must get rid of that 
thought:" and in the carriage we knelt together, 
and he was restored. He restoreth my soul ; why, 
dear friends, I believe my Father has restored my 
soul twenty times to-day. I believe He is doing it 
now. If it were not for His restoration, I believe 
I should be a chronic backslider. We want a 
power to lean on. What would He do with His 
strength, if we were not to lean on Him ? " He 
restoreth my soul;" this is not mere sentiment. 
As a commercial man of a good deal of experience, 
I am free to say, of all places where I have enjoyed 
communion with God, that intercourse in the halls 
of commerce has been most precious. After a 
day's work, you are sure to be depressed ; look up 
for the restoring grace. As a gardener, with his 
watering-pot in the evening, restores the drooping 
plants, even thus you shall know the restoration of 
divine grace. 

Then " He lcadeth me in the paths of righteous- 
ness for His name's sake." Listen while I tell 
them over in order ; He maketh, He leadeth, He 



THE TWENTY-THIRD PSALM. 1 63 

restoreth. " Leadeth me in the paths of righteous- 
ness for His name's sake." Do some of you say, 
the distress of my life is because there is so little 
practical righteousness coming out of my life? 
When I have been walking with God, I have never 
needed to look for open doors, or to open them. 
When you arc prepared for work, God gives it. I 
could sooner believe the sun would not rise, than 
that when we are ready, God will not use us. 
There are some Christians, who in walking with 
God, in communion with Him, maintain the keen 
edge of their life ; but the Christian with blunted 
edge is dulled, and God's nature would sooner 
change, than such a man be used. The boundary 
of our usefulness is marked off at the point of our 
surrender to God. If you are not used more, it 
is because you are not fitted. I am not touching 
the question of natural gifts and capacity. I am 
touching the question of personal fitness for the 
Master's service. 

" Yea, though I walk through the valley of the 
shadow of death, I will fear no evil." Some have 
seen a great deal of darkness in that verse. " Yea, 
though I walk through the valley of the shadow." 
I never heard a more lovely expression ; it is the 
valley of shadow, that is all. Up to this point the 
Psalmist has been speaking about God, now he is 
talking with Him. You cannot speak about God, 
but He must come. He says, " Where two or 
three arc gathered together in My name, there am 
I." Again, " For thou art with me, Thy rod and Thy 
staff they comfort me." A word about the rod and 



164 THE TWENTY-THIRD PSALM. 

staff. I know some think it necessary that God 
should deal out much of discipline, but it is not the 
obedient children that are punished, I am persuaded, 
if you take His yoke. " Take My yoke upon you ; " 
you cannot wear two yokes ; reject your own, and 
you will find ' His yoke is easy, and His burden is 
light.' His rod, not merely to discipline, — surely 
the idea of stay and comfort is here. 

How wonderful the later strokes of this Psalm 
are. How would the courage be taken out of our 
enemies, were a banqueting table constantly spread 
before them. They would say, "Those men cannot 
be very fearful." God spreads such a table in the 
presence of our mortal enemies, death, sin, tempta- 
tion. He stands and says, "Take, eat; this is My 
body, which is broken for you ; this is My blood, 
shed for many." "Thou preparest a table before 
me in the presence of mine enemies : Thou anointest 
mine head with oil." Simon, the Pharisee, might 
neglect this part of Eastern hospitality, but a guest 
of the Lord will not fail to have His head anointed 
with oil. His joy shall stream from thine head to 
thy feet, as thou sittest in His banqueting-house, 
and His banner over thee is love. 

I have sometimes felt almost unequal to talking 
of this last clause, " My cup runneth over." Do 
not think me irreverent, if I say that Jesus goes 
from guest to guest, looks into each cup, and find- 
ing it partially empty, does not trust to servants, 
but Himself fillcth it, so that it runneth over ; nor 
does He mind spoiling the table-cloth with its over- 
flow of prof useness, so boundless is His love. " My 



THE TWENTY-THIRD PSALM. l6$ 

cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy 
shall follow me." How often we hear that word 
from the lips of men, "surely." What are we sure 
of? We have a proverb in England, "Nothing 
is sure but death." But we have this promise, 
"Surely goodness and mercy," these two attendant 
ministers of God, who stand on either side of our 
history, day by day ; " surely goodness and mercy 
shall follow me." Your business is to hedge in the 
days as they pass. " Shall follow me," mark this, 
"all the days," not some, not the days when the 
sun shines ; not the marriage morning ; but in all 
days, by the couch of the suffering, and by the 
fresh dug grave ; " follow me all the days of my 
life." Oh, suffering, afflicted children of God, 
pierce this cloud, for remember how Bunyan in his 
prison sings : 

' For though they shut this outward man, 
Within their bolts and bars ; 
By faith in Christ, I yet can mount, 
Far higher than the stars.' 

Oh, blessed be God for the power He has given 
us to say, " All the days of my life." " And I will 
dwell * * for ever," not in my earthly possessions, 
not on David's throne for ever, but " in the house 
of the Lord," that house, " beautiful for situation, 
the joy of the whole earth;" the house which 
Christ promised, when He said, " I go to prepare a 
place for you." Do you ever meditate on that 
thought ? Think, for eighteen hundred years, the 
power and wisdom and might of our Lord has been 
used in providing a house for His people. " I go to 



1 66 THE TWENTY-THIRD PSALM. 

prepare a place for you. And * * I will come 
again, and receive you unto myself ; that where I 
am, there ye may be also;" and we are waiting till 
He comes. Oh, blessed God ! we thank Thee for 
Thy Spirit, who bridges the way for us ; we thank 
Thee for the angels, who conduct us across, and 
while we long for "the robes of whiteness;" and 
" the starry crown," we sing : 

" Oh eyes that are weary, and hearts that are sore, 
Look off unto Jesus, and sorrow no more." 

Have you learned this ? God help you to learn 
it ! Why put it off till the vision breaks on your 
astonished gaze. God help you to believe, for it is 
written : " If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not 
be established." And may God make this seed 
Psalm grow into a harvest, not of thirty, sixty, or 
one hundred, but of ten thousand-fold in the future 
history of your life. 




THE SECRET OF POWER. 



MARK, Chapter IX. 

'OTHING is more interesting to the true fol- 
lower of the Lord Jesus Christ, than to note 
ii@T/ how He dealt with His disciples, when He 
was with them on earth. Human nature is the 
same in all ages ; I doubt not that much might be 
done by education and civilization, but you will 
always find the tendency to evil, that is common in 
one age, common in another, and common to their 
descendants. I trust many of us who are here, 
desire that God should use us very much. I think 
that we cannot have a more helpful thought than 
this, — what Jesus Christ can do with this being of 
mine, when it is surrendered wholly to Him. It is 
astonishing what an able workman can do with a 
bad tool ; it is not so much the tool as the workman 
we look at. It is a blessed thing to be made the 
tool of the Lord. And shall a man boast ? Shall 
the axe boast of itself? Did I not cut that tree 
down splendidly ? 

(167) 



1 68 THE SECRET OF POWER. 

What great thoughts there are in the Bible ! It 
is full of wisdom and interest, and one of the chap- 
ters among many deeply interesting, is the ninth 
chapter of Mark. Let us consider a portion of it. 
" And * * Jesus taketh with Him Peter, and James, 
and John, and leadeth them up into a high mountain 
apart by themselves ; and He was transfigured 
before them." Consecrated men, in a position of 
eminence, did you ever notice how constantly Christ 
takes with Him Peter, and James, and John ? And 
it is to teach us that consecrated men see Christ's 
work and example. Take the case of the daughter 
of Jairus. When the Master arrived at the house, 
the hired mourners were wailing, and Christ said, 
" Why make ye this ado, and weep ? " Christ never 
rebukes sorrow, but He does not like people to cry 
at so much an hour. And so He said, " The damsel 
is not dead, but sleepeth ; " and they laughed, though 
they were crying two minutes before ; but it makes 
no difference to them, they can laugh or cry, which- 
ever they are paid for. 

"And His raiment became shining, exceeding 
white as snow ; so as no fuller on earth can white 
them. And there appeared unto them Elias with 
Moses : and they were talking with Jesus." He 
knew them ; He had been with Moses at the bush ; 
He had been with Elijah on the Mount ; they were 
old companions. "Peter answered and said to 
Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here : and let 
lis make three tabernacles ; one for Thee, and one 
for Moses, and one for Elias. For he wist not 
what to say ; for they were sore afraid. And there 



THE SECRET OF POWER. 1 69 

was a cloud that overshadowed them : and a voice 
came out of the cloud, saying, This is My beloved 
Son : hear Him." What a group cf dignitaries 
assembled there ! I do not wonder they scarcely 
knew what they were doing. Father, Son, the 
manifesting glory of Jesus, and Moses, and Elias. 

Notice what follows : " And suddenly, when they 
had looked round about, they saw no man any 
more, save Jesus only with themselves. And as 
they came down from the mountain, He charged 
them that they should tell no man what things 
they had seen, till the Son of man were risen from 
the dead. And they kept that saying with them- 
selves, questioning one with another what the rising 
from the dead should mean. And they asked Him, 
saying, Why say the scribes that Elias must first 
come? And he answered and told them, Elias 
verily cometh first, and restoreth all things ; and 
how it is written of the Son of man, that He must 
suffer many things, and be set at naught. But I 
say unto you, that Elias is indeed come, and they 
have done unto him whatsoever they listed, as it is 
written of him. And when He came to His disci- 
ples, He saw a great multitude about them, and the 
scribes questioning with them." And the memory 
of that blessed voice that woke them up, how 
beautiful it is in the direction of self-abeyance, to 
have Him say, " This is My beloved Son : hear 
Him." If you would know the heart of Jesus, you 
must be alone with Him. 

" And as they came down from the mountain, 
He charged them that thev should tell no man 
8* 



170 THE SECRET OF POWER. 

what things they had seen, till the Son of man 
were risen from the dead." They did not know 
what it meant, and it was not peculiar to them ; 
the ignorance of many is as dense in our day. I 
don't suppose fifty in this house are living in the 
power of the resurrection of the dead. I pray God 
continually to give me power to know it. " That 
ye may know," said Paul, " what is the exceeding 
greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, 
according to the working of His mighty power, 
which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him 
from the dead." 

And now notice the change in the fourteenth 
verse : " And when He came to His disciples, He 
saw a great multitude about them, and the scribes 
questioning with them. And straightway all the 
people, when they beheld Him, were greatly amazed, 
and running to Him saluted Him. And He asked 
the scribes, What question ye with them ? And 
one of the multitude answered and said, Master, I 
have brought unto Thee my son, which hath a dumb 
spirit ; and wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth 
him ; and he foameth, and gnasheth with his teeth, 
and pineth away : and I spake to Thy disciples that 
they should cast him out ; and they could not." 
Oh, blessed Master! we do praise Thee, that the 
glory of the summit had not sufficient attractions 
to keep Thee up there ; we are glad that the devil- 
possessed boy, and the sinners at the foot of the 
mountain, had stronger claims than glory upon 
Thee. May we see the alternation, and realize by 
faith that we are coming to Mount Zion, and that 



THE SECRET OF POWER. 171 

Thou didst come down for a season of blessed 
confidence to a sin-stained world. May we learn 
that the life in heaven is the death of the life here. 
God grant we may know what it is to follow Christ 
in this thing. 

The disciples were unable to cast out this evil 
spirit. Why was this ? They had received power 
to do it. It is written, in the sixth chapter, "And 
He called unto Him the twelve, and began to 
send them forth by two and two ; and gave them 
power over unclean spirits." In another place 
we are told, " And they cast out many devils, 
and anointed with oil many that were sick, and 
healed them." And in a third passage we learn, 
that the seventy "returned again with joy, saying, 
Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through 
Thy name." They came back to tell Christ, glory- 
ing in these results. We observe, He sent them 
out two and two, and they cast out devils, healed 
the sick, and preached the gospel. At the point 
where we are, they are not two and two, but were 
all gathered together ; they had power when they 
were two and two, but now that they are gathered 
together, they have not power to cast out this one 
evil spirit. How do you account for that ? Here, 
in the sixth chapter, we are told they are strong, 
and possessed of great power, and now, when they 
are all together, they had not the power to cast 
out one evil spirit ! How is this ? We shall find 
out. 

" He answercth him, and saith, O faithless gene- 
ration, how long shall I be with you ? how long 



172 THE SECRET OF POWER. 

shall I suffer you ? bring him unto Me. And 
they brought him unto Him : and when he saw 
Him, straightway the spirit tare him ; and he fell 
on the ground, and wallowed foaming. And He 
asked his father, How long is it ago since this came 
unto him ? And he said, Of a child. And ofttimes 
it hath cast him into the fire, and into the waters, 
to destroy him : but if Thou canst do any thing, 
have compassion on us, and help us. Jesus said 
unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are 
possible to him that believeth. And straightway 
the father of the child cried out, and said with 
tears, Lord, I believe ; help Thou mine unbelief." 

How different is this prayer of the father's from 
the unwise prayer of the disciples. In one place 
they said, "Lord, increase our faith." And was 
not that wise ? you ask. It was not wise for them 
to say it, for He said, ' If ye have faith, and doubt 
not, * * ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou 
removed, and be thou cast into the sea ; it shall be 
done.' It is better to be honest and say, Lord, the 
season of unbelief has come. Some Christians 
think that God keeps a sort of apothecary's shop, 
with faith and grace and goodness done up in 
bottles, and if we ask Him for them, He will 
deliver them. I don't believe this ; faith is a grace 
that grows, and when you don't use what you have, 
you cannot expect it to grow. The father put it 
rightly, when he said, " Lord, I believe ; help Thou 
mine unbelief." 

" When Jesus saw that the people came running 
together, He rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto 



THE SECRET OF POWER. 1 73 

him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, 
come out of him, and enter no more into him. 
And the spirit cried, and rent him sore, and came 
out of him : and he was as one dead ; insomuch 
that many said, He is dead. But Jesus took him 
by the hand, and lifted him up ; and he arose." I 
wish to have you see, that what the disciples 
cannot accomplish together, the Master accom- 
plishes alone with ease. Dear friends, this is a 
great lesson. Do you remember the seven sons of 
Sceva, who pretended to cast out evil spirits, and 
the evil spirit set upon them, and they were glad 
to get away ? The evil spirit says, " Jesus I know, 
and Paul I know ; but who are ye ? " If you are 
not a Christian character, the devil won't care for 
you in the least. I speak not in any idle boast, 
but the sooner the devil knows I am set for Jesus, 
as one of his adversaries, the better I shall be 
pleased. The battle for God is no child's play! 
"We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but 
against principalities, against powers, against the 
rulers of the darkness of this world." 

It was not always so with these disciples, as I 
have shown you in the sixth chapter. But a lapse 
of faith had come ; all men come to that point in 
their spiritual life. If you do not fight the good 
fight of faith, if you are half God's child and half 
devil's child, — if you fail to rid yourselves of those 
damnable influences, you will never know the power 
of the life of Christ. Put away from you those 
things that are blasting the life of Christ. How 
grateful I should be if the Master would come and 



174 THE SECRET OF POWER. 

exorcise every dumb spirit. Hundreds of Chris- 
tians can talk very volubly on any other subject, 
but speak of Christ, and they are dumb; they can 
talk about the events of the day, but as for talking 
of Christ, they cannot. This thing is so solemnly 
true, that my heart is filled with sorrow and heavi- 
ness about it. 

" He is dead," they said ; Oh no, you need not 
fear that ! " Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted 
him up ; and he arose. And when He was come 
into the house, His disciples asked Him privately, 
Why could not we cast him out ? " That is right ; 
having come to that point, we shall have a lesson. 
It is beautiful to see how He deals with them. He 
said, " This kind cometh forth by nothing, but by 
prayer and fasting." What is that, by abstinence 
from food ? No, I don't think it is. I know -I 
could not abstain from food very much. I am sure 
it is not that. We must not leave out the beautiful 
thought suggested by the word 'prayer.' As 
Montgomery says : 

" Prayer is the Christian's vital breath ! " 

Always living in a prayerful spirit, you get into 
secret converse with Jesus naturally. One calls on 
another, and he gives him an hour of valuable 
time, but he has not ten minutes to give to Christ. 
Suppose a man were to lock himself up in his 
counting-room, and say to his clerk, If any one 
wants to see me, I am engaged for ten minutes in 
communion with the Lord Jesus Christ. They 
would think he had taken leave of his senses, and 



THE SECRET OF POWER. 1 75 

would have him in a lunatic asylum directly. And 
yet he wastes time on some wretched political 
affair. If you could see them standing in one 
dense mass in the London Exchange, you would 
think all the interests of England and America 
were at stake, and if they could only get Gladstone 
to do that, or D'Israeli to do the other, the Millen- 
nium would come directly; and they get it; and 

the Millennium does not come ! 

And now notice the thirty-third verse: "And 
He came to Capernaum: and being in the house 
He asked them, What was it that ye disputed 
among yourselves by the way ? " Oh Master, how 
we do rejoice that Thou knowest how to touch the 
vital question. I put these two scenes togeriier, 
because they are part of the whole. When they 
were come to Capernaum, they came into a house, 
doubtless for refreshment, and when the Master 
was with them there, He asked them, ''What 
was it that ye disputed among yourselves by the 
way ? But they held their peace : for by the way 
they had disputed among themselves, who should 
be the greatest." Oh, I see, I see, that is what it 
was ; you could not cast the devil out, because he 
was in. The devil does not cast himself out when 
he enthrones himself in the heart ; there he is, and 
the devil does not cast out Satan. That is the 
mischief, you see, and the Master knows the work- 
ing of it all, and touches the whole thing at once. 
What were ye disputing by the way ? They were 
disputing about who should be greatest. " And 
He sat down, and called the twelve, and saith unto 



I76 THE SECRET OF POWER. 

them, If any man desire to be first, the same shall 
be last of all, and servant of all." If you would be 
the greatest, take the lowest place of all. The 
world sticks a man on a pedestal, and says, " Now, 
you common men, come and worship." The Lord 
says, " If any man desire to be first, the same shall 
be last of all, and servant of all." In proportion as 
you are used of God, you will come down, down, 
down. Many a man gifted of God, instead of lean- 
ing on the Master, thinks he is something, and he 
is nothing. A friend said to me, " I got into a 
great trouble last week." "How is that?" "I got 
puffed up with pride, and the devil got hold of me." 
"I am not surprised," I said. " I got no relief," he 
continued, "till I found this passage, 'If a man 
think himself to be something, when he is nothing, 
he deceiveth himself,' and the moment I read that, 
I got free, for the devil cannot hold nothing." A 
great truth quaintly put. 

Jesus "took a child, and set him in the midst of 
them : and when He had taken him in His arms, 
He said unto them, Whosoever shall receive one of 
such children in My name, receiveth Me; and 
whosoever shall receive Me, receiveth not Me, but 
Him that sent Me." Dear friends, this unsightly 
thing of desire for prominence in the disciples, is 
not confined to any one place. On one occasion, 
Christ had to say, "The kings of the Gentiles exer- 
cise lordship over them ; * * but ye shall not be 
so: but he that is greatest among you, let him be 
as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that 
doth serve." We don't rule in the church of God 



THE SECRET OF POWER. 1 7/ 

by the assumption of prerogative, but we do rule 
by serving. Aspire to be a Pope, or an elder, or a 
deacon, and you will discover before long that the 
discomforts and troubles attendant on your ambi- 
tious designs arc far greater than you have any 
idea of. But I will tell you what I have lived long 
enough to find out ; that if you love a person very 
much, and try to serve them, they will let you do 
anything you like; you "stoop to conquer." May 
we be just as little children, that we may be greatest 
of all ; a little child is simple and guileless." 

Let me remind you of the following : " And John 
answered Him, saying, Master, we saw one casting 
out devils in Thy name, and he followeth not us." 
What do you mean ? Do you mean in the conten- 
tion, my brother ? Followed not us ! a nice following 
indeed! My church! My people! How I would 
like to see the church of God purged of that: 
When we get where we can rejoice at the pros- 
perity of others, then God will greatly prosper us. 
When I can rejoice in the prosperity of my dear 
brother Hepworth, or Cameron, then I have reached 
a point where God can trust me somewhat. How 
often Christians remain contented in this unhappy 
state. I meet a brother and say, "How are you 
getting on ? " " Oh, very well." " Have you had 
any additions to your church lately ? " " Well, no, 
not many in the past three months, or, come to 
think of it, in six months." "Well, how are your 
prayer-meetings ?" " Oh, that is the difficulty ; we 
cannot get our people out to prayer-meetings." 
" What do you mean by getting along pretty well ? 



178 THE SECRET OF POWER. 

If you were a business man, and were asked how 
you were doing, would you say, Oh, pretty well, 
but we have not had any trade for the last six 
months ? You would not talk like that." And 
that is what is the trouble with many churches. 
If you should ask a jury of business men to give a 
verdict on the condition of such churches, they 
would say they were in a condition of spiritual 
bankruptcy. 

I have sometimes said to a brother, How is so- 
and-so doing in your town, (perhaps an evangelical 
clergyman, who, I knew, had been doing a good 
work,) and he says, "I don't know anything about 
him," and in a few minutes you will find a consider- 
able jealousy. I would to God, that those who 
profess and call themselves Christians, would see 
that another twelve-hours does not elapse before 
they purge themselves from this sin. Listen : 
"Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory ; 
but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other 
better than themselves." Jesus said, in reply to 
His disciples' question, " Forbid him not : for there 
is no man which shall do a miracle in My name, 
that can lightly speak evil of Me." 

Blessed Lord, let us take heed to the Master's 
solemn words ! Grant that we may learn to follow 
His paths, and ever walk in the steps of His most 
holy life ! 



THOUGHTS 



PSALM cxix. 113. 

I HATE .... THOUGHTS : BUT THY LAW DO I LOVE. 



* 



'OU will find the basis or starting-point of my 
address in the one hundred and nineteenth 
Psalm and one hundred and thirteenth verse. 
I am going to talk about thoughts. You will ob- 
serve this word, " I hate thoughts." Did you 
ever read this verse before ? Perhaps you will say 
there is not such a verse in the Bible, and I shall 
not be surprised if you say I have left out a word, 
" I hate vain thoughts." No, I have not left out a 
word. The word vain is supplied by the trans- 
lators. I wish they had left it in its native rugged- 
ness, — "I hate thoughts : but Thy law do I love." 
The word 'law' is not to be understood in any 
contracted sense, but for the whole mind of God ; 
and rightly understood, means, I hate the natural 
uprisings of thoughts that come to my mind, but 
God's thought, God's mind, God's breathings of the 
heart, I love. 

(179) 



l80 THOUGHTS. 

Let me at once say, I thoroughly endorse the 
Psalmist's statement here ; for I freely confess, that 
if I could, I never would think another thought of 
mine so long as I live, — I say, if I could, because I 
am conscious of my infirmity in this respect. 
There is not a soul here, but must come, sooner or 
later, to that rugged statement, ' I hate thoughts.' 
The influence of this may be illustrated in one or 
two sentences. Suppose a telegraph boy should 
come into this room at this moment, and brine: 
news to one of you, that some dear friend is 
dangerously ill. It is but a sentence, but in that 
thought is enough to destroy all of rest, and possi- 
bly all of profit to you in this meeting. Let a 
business man, as he sits here, know that a firm in 
which he is a creditor to the amount of fifteen or 
twenty thousand dollars has just failed, and that 
man's peace of mind is gone. If, for example, 
some husband, living perhaps in the suburbs of the 
city, allows some word of unkindness to escape his 
lips, if his wife is a true woman, I'll venture to say 
she has little of quiet or rest till she has seen her 
husband, or put it right. So dependent arc we on 
thought. It is not the amount of money that 
makes you rich, but the amount of thought you 
possess. If I were asked for a description of 
divine life, I should say, divine life is the aggregate 
of divine thoughts. God says, ' Man shall not live 
by bread alone, but by every word that procecdeth 
out of the mouth of God.' Do you remember how 
the devil came to Christ after the forty days' fast, 
and asked Him why He did not turn the stones 



THOUGHTS'. l8l 

into bread. What was His reply ? " It is written, 
Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every 
word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." 

The reason of this startling statement is not far 
to seek. Look at the sixth chapter of Genesis : 
" And God saw that the wickedness of man was 
great in the earth, and that every imagination of 
the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." 
Since man's fall, the human heart has only been 
capable of the outcome of wickedness, — remember 
that. This is solemnly testified by the living God. 
And the Hebrew word is even stronger ; it means 
not only the natural imagination, but man's heart 
is evil and evil continually. Notice another thing, 
that this solemn testimony from the sixth chapter 
of Genesis, is corroborated by Jesus Christ. Turn 
to the fifteenth chapter of Matthew and nineteenth 
verse, and hear what the Master Himself says: 
" For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, mur- 
ders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, 
blasphemies." Mark the words that stand at the 
head of the list. What ? Evil thoughts ! I defy 
any one in this house to commit sin, till the desires 
of his corrupt heart suggest it to him. No man 
has ever stolen without corrupt thought ; and so of 
every form of sin, it is altogether of corrupt desire : 
and therefore preachers speak of God's children as 
having escaped the corruption that is in the world 
through lust, that is, inordinate desire. I know 
men who deny the great truth of the depravity of 
the human mind, and will disbelieve this statement, 
but we have to do, not with likes or dislikes, but 
9 



1 82 THOUGHTS. 

the solemn testimony of the living God, not one jot 
or tittle of which can ever fail. 

And I may corroborate this position by further 
testimony. Look at the word of God in the fifty- 
fifth chapter of Isaiah and seventh verse. I com- 
mend this verse to your thoughtful notice. " Let 
the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous 
man his thoughts : and let him return unto the 
Lord, and He will have mercy upon Him ; and to 
our God, for He will abundantly pardon." Here is 
the promise, to one full of corrupt thoughts. Fol- 
low this again ! if any one of you are ignorant 
concerning the way of salvation : — " Let the wicked 
forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his 
thoughts : and let him return unto the Lord, and 
He will have mercy upon him ; and to our God, 
for He will abundantly pardon. For My thoughts 
are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My 
ways, saith the Lord." If you say your thoughts 
are as God's, you call Him a liar. 

If there is such a wonderful contrast, if our 
thoughts by nature are so corrupt and unlike the 
thoughts of God, then it is wisdom to minimize the 
thoughts natural to me, and fill my mind with 
God's thoughts. Nature abhors a vacuum, and 
just so is it of grace; and the reason why many 
Christians are not rejoicing in Christ, is because 
the mind of Christ does not dwell in them. 

Perhaps I am addressing some who are making 
their minds cesspools of unclean thoughts. Take 
heed what ye read, for the secret of the want of 
joy of Christian life, is from the fact that many are 



THOUGHTS. 183 

feeding on husks. I don't expect a man that is a 
corpse, to walk about ; and till men are quickened 
by the Spirit of God, they are gravitating from 
earthly to sensual, and from sensual to devilish. 

And now I want you to look at another portion of 
the divine Word ; The second book of Kings and 
fifth chapter gives the history of Naaman, who 
was a leper ; a little maid in his house told him if 
he would go to Samaria, and see God's prophet 
Elisha, he would recover him of his leprosy; and 
he came in his chariot and stood before Elisha's 
door, "and Elisha sent a messenger unto him, say- 
ing, Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy 
flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be 
clean." Observe the words spoken by Elisha, and 
representing God's mind. Observe, "But Naaman 
was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I 

thought, " aye, here it is ; what business have 

you to think ? But seeing you have begun, what 
did you think ? — "I thought, He will surely come 
out to me." I see, you are a big man. ' I did not 
think Elisha would send a messenger to me ; I am 
next in command to the king of Syria.' I see, 
Naaman, you thought Elisha was like an Egyptian 
necromancer. I am glad you have spoken your 
thoughts ; they are better out than in. 

It is a great mistake, to suppose that we can 
dictate how God shall act. What would you think 
of a man sending for a physician, if he were sick 
with some dreadful fever, and saying, 'Doctor, 
I know something of medicine, and unless you 
prescribe as I want you to, I won't take your medi- 



184 THOUGHTS. 

cine.' What would the physician do ? He would 
walk out of the house. But in spiritual things, 
these poor, deluded, blinded sinners would dictate 
to God. Therefore, let every man forsake his 
thoughts. I hear this Syrian say, "Are not Abana 
and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all 
the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and 
be clean?" No, if you want to be clean, you must 
wash in Jordan. ' I thought ! ' let that personal 
pronoun ' 1/ come down, for it is a wretched gath- 
ering up of men's thoughts. 'I thought!' What 
a contrast between his words and those we started 
with. 

Now let us look at the one hundred and thirty- 
ninth Psalm and seventeenth verse : " How precious 
also are Thy thoughts unto me, O God ! " Look 
at the beautiful contrast between "I hate thoughts" 
of mine, but listen, " How precious also are Thy 
thoughts unto me, O God ! " Them, I love ; them, 
I embrace ; them, I value. Oh, to have the mind 
and heart furnished with thoughts of God. Ob- 
serve what follows: "How great is the sum of 
them ! If I should count them, they are more in 
number than the sand." What a beautiful expres- 
sion! "When I awake, I am still with Thee." It 
looks as though David had begun to count the 
thoughts of God. When he went out in the even- 
ing to meditate, the thoughts of God crowded so 
fast on his mind, that he became tired and fell 
asleep. " If I should count them, they are more in 
number than the sand," and now, "when I awake, I 
am still with Thee." 



THOUGHTS. 185 

Oh, the wealth of God's thoughts, how wonderful 
they are. Remember how the holy men of old 
spoke about the Word of God. John says, ' I es- 
teem the Word of God more than food.' Jeremiah 
says, ' I have found the Word, and I eat it.' And 
none of these had much of the Bible. If they had 
had Matthew, Mark, Luke, and the rest, I think 
they would have been hardly able to contain them- 
selves. This is the food God has given to His 
children, and yet this is the loaf they so seldom 
eat. As the Church of England has it, it should 
be read, marked, learned, and inwardly digested. 
You need not wonder your life is not what it should 
be, when you think of what you feed upon. It is a 
great life to live, to be sweetly filled with the Word 
of the living God. Let the Word of Christ dwell 
in you, sing and make melody in your hearts unto 
God. 

Be careful, lest you allow thoughts of distrust of 
God to annoy you. Remember His promise is in 
such words as these : " Be careful for nothing," but 
with praise and thanksgiving, let your life be formed 
by the Word of God, and the peace of God which 
passeth all understanding shall be yours. One 
man says, My wealth keeps me comfortable and 
happy. I am sorry to hear that. Another says, 
My poverty makes me wretched. I am sorry to 
hear that also. The eternal God is superior to 
either wealth or poverty. He that believeth that 
his thoughts arc as God's thoughts, callcth God a 
liar. You can allow thoughts to rise in you, the 
outcoming of which will impeach the integrity of- 



1 86 THOUGHTS. 

the Most High ! If there is a single soul in this 
house, not rejoicing in the salvation of Christ, it is 
because you are deliberately putting God's thoughts 
away from you. He declares, "He that believeth 
on the Son hath everlasting life. This is God's 
thought ; read it, and let it rest in your mind, and 
as God lives you are saved. 

In your relations to your fellow-men, be careful. 
How often the thought of jealousy is in the heart ; 
God says, "Love your enemies, do good to them 
which hate you." Instead of being mean and 
selfish, receive His thoughts. He will tell you 
that it is in vain for you to rise up early, or tarry up 
late, for He gives PI is beloved sleep. The meaning 
of this is, that when you and I sleep, the great 
Head of the house, Christ, as a Son in His own 
house, is providing all our necessaries ; for " My 
God shall supply all your need according to His 
riches in glory by Christ Jesus." 

One or two more words and I have done. Re- 
member this ; that evil thoughts come continually 
to the unregenerated heart. I can hear you say, 
' You have touched a topic that brings me much 
sorrow. I have found myself strangely unable to 
forgive my enemies.' You might well utter David's 
prayer, " Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth ; 
keep the door of my lips ;" for "out of the abun- 
dance of the heart the mouth speaketh." That is 
the reason so many Christians are dumb about 
Christ, — they are cold; they speak from the out- 
come of the heart when it is filled with divine love. 
Go often to the Word of God ; take heed that seeds 



THOUGHTS. 187 

of righteousness are sown, that you may not depart 
from God. I do not believe my heart is " prone to 
wander." So far as my unregenerated heart is 
concerned, that is true ; but since Christ has given 
me a new heart, that heart is true to Him, and I 
have a new heart and right spirit. I would not 
insult my Maker, by saying His gift was prone to 
wander from Him. " Take heed, brethren, lest 
there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in 
departing from the living God." There comes the 
question of evil thoughts, — where do they come 
from ? First, from the inherent corruption common 
to all, but uncommon to those who keep the Christ- 
life to the front. You are as a man, or woman, with 
two lives in you, since you have become God's ; 
the spirit-life is developed, and if you want it to be 
developed, you must keep the foot of your spiritual 
life on the neck of the flesh. The two opposites 
cannot be found together. God help you in keeping 
the spiritual life. 

Let me remind you further, that a great many 
evil thoughts are voluntarily received. When 
people speak about unholy things, do not listen ; 
when you see in the papers wretched items, the 
result of the reading of which is to defile you, put 
them into the fire. What do you mean by bringing 
into your heart a mass of refuse matter ? Observe, 
then, the cause of the wicked thoughts which come 
to you on your knees in prayer ; the manifestation 
of the devil, the injection of the spawn of hell. In 
the sixth chapter of Ephcsians, it is said : " Above 
all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be 



1 88 THOUGHTS. 

able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked." 
Fiery darts are an injection of the prince of dark- 
ness, and therefore I beg of you, be reminded, God 
has given you a shield upon which to quench all 
the fiery darts. The shield to which Paul refers, 
was a piece of defensive armor, about seven feet in 
height. I could stand under one of those shields. 
Suppose enemies were shooting at me with their 
arrows, it would be wisdom in me to get under my 
shield. The shield is not an aggressive kind of 
armor, but defensive. It is written, u His truth 
shall be thy shield and buckler ; " and behind that, 
you may quench the fiery darts of the wicked. 

A friend once said to me, "It is not so much the 
evil thoughts that come to you ; the danger is when 
you say, * Here, my friend, take a chair.' " He is 
quite right about it ; it is not the coming of evil 
thoughts, but the retention cf them. If I were 
visiting you, and a thief should break into your 
house, and I caught him, I should not speak as 
though he were a welcome guest, but I should put 
him out. So if evil thoughts come, put them out, 
and I don't care if you use a bit of violence. A 
man in my country, who had been converted from 
a prize fighter, was conducting a meeting, and one 
of his old friends came in, and began talking to 
annoy him. At last he said, " If you don't keep 
quiet, I'll put you out." But the man, thinking he 
would do nothing there, kept on, and my friend 
came down from the platform and hit him a tremen- 
dous blow, and put him out. When remonstrated 
with for doing so, he was told that " Vengeance is 



THOUGHTS. 189 

Mine, saith the Lord." " I know it," said he, "I 
was only helping Him a bit." I would not have 
you imitate any acts of unkindness, but to be wise 
as serpents, and harmless as doves. 

Many of us have not looked on the face of Christ, 
but the best thing that could be done has been 
done. He has written a series of letters — so faith- 
ful, so full ! and these letters contain His mind. 
He has sent us this Book, which is. the mind of 
Christ, written out in its beautiful details for us, 
and we possess this, we feed upon it. May we 
know what it is to be alive unto God through Jesus 
Christ our Lord, and when men turn away from 
God's great treasury to the things of time and 
sense, we pity them and sorrow over them in our 
hearts. 

Instead of so much of the Tribune, why not the 
glorious testimony that comes from Thy tribunal — 
from the loving presence of the living God ? Why 
not the Herald of God's testimony ? Why not the 
Sun of righteousness ? God help you to understand 
how God hath condescended to be a letter-writer. 
He has described, and behind the invention of the 
printing press, He has given to us the traces of 
His glorious thought ! Anticipate the time when 
we shall be like Him ; and let the interim be filled 
with the glorious Word of our Master. And if 
you want to know God's letters, ask Him concern- 
ing them ; don't read them second-hand. 

God bless to you these testimonies of His truth. 
May you learn His blessed Word, till you can say^ 
" Not I, but Christ liveth in me." 



CHRIST LIFTED UP. 



^< 



JOHN xii . 32 



AND I, IF I BE LIFTED UP FROM THE EARTH, WILL DRAW ALL 
MEN UNTO ME. 



fHESE words of the Lord Jesus form a part 
of the conversation that fell from His lips, 
when certain Greeks came to Philip, and 
said, " Sir, we would see Jesus." And Jesus an- 
swered in these words, — they do not appear to have 
necessarily any connection with the question put, — 
" Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and 
die, it abideth alone : but if it die, it bringeth forth 
much fruit." Now these words have reference to 
this great fact, that the Lord Jesus Christ, who is 
incorruptible seed, came into the world to die for 
our sins, and to rise again for our salvation. It is 
written, " God hath given to us eternal life, and this 
life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath 
life: and He that hath not the Son of God hath 
not life." 

Jesus declared : " I, if I be lifted up from the 
earth, will draw all men unto Me." And now, I 
( 190) 



CHRIST LIFTED UP. I9I 

wish to call your attention to the lifting up of 
Jesus. A 'lifting Him up,' is to declare the same 
sentiment to the world — God's great love ; " For 
God so loved the world, that He gave His only 
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him 
should not perish, but have everlasting life. For 
God sent not His Son into the world to condemn 
the world ; but that the world through Him might 
be saved." But as man is everywhere a sinner, 
how are sinners to be saved ? Jesus Christ answers 
this question : " For Christ also hath once suffered 
for sins, the just for the unjust." He said, " I have 
a baptism to be baptized with ; and how am I 
straitened till it be accomplished ! " The great 
work of Jesus Christ on earth was to die, however 
important His life ; however blessed it may be for 
us to recognize that the righteousness of Christ 
comes by imputation, that His personal integrity 
blesses us who believe in Him ; however blessed to 
see His life, His hands full with blessings every- 
where, healing the leper, cleansing from sin and 
guilt and defilement, giving sight to the blind, 
raising the dead, turning men from darkness unto 
light ; — however blessed all these, yet this is but a 
minor part of Christ's work. The great work of 
Christ in the world was to be the sacrifice for sin ; 
to deal with sin, that cost the death of Christ, for it 
is written : " Once in the end of the world hath 
He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of 
Himself," and thank God, He has put away sin. 

Next observe, that the Lord Jesus Christ has 
been lifted up in order to demonstrate, that the 



192 CHRIST LIFTED UP. 

work of salvation has been accomplished by Him ; 
He did not' undertake a work that He failed in. 
To-day God sits over all blessed forever, because 
He dealt successfully with every foe to man ; He 
dealt successfully with sin, to bring to an end the 
corrupt life that you and I have, as related to 
Adam ; for the cause of the death of Christ, or 
rather, the issue of His death, was this, that He 
brought to an end a sinful life. I say, that as 
surely as Christ died for me, my relationship to 
Adam is at an end ; my condition as a sinner is a 
thing of the past ; not now related to condemna- 
tion ; not now under the law. 1 know that, because 
Christ was lifted up on the cross more than eighteen 
hundred years ago ; I know by that work of His 
alone, I am a saved man. I am not saved by my 
faith ; not because I pray ; not because 1 am one 
whit better than you, but because on the cross 
Jesus put away my sin, as far as the east is from 
the west ; and I lift up Jesus, in order that you may 
go out of this house believing Him for yourselves. 

If you have never pleaded death in Christ before, 
plead it now. If you have been on the wrong 
track for years, remember that the law demands of 
you the forfeiture of your life en account of sin. 
If I were a felon, having broken the laws of the 
Commonwealth, the law would not say, ■ Sir, you 
must be a better man ; ' the law would demand its 
penalty, and 1 should be punished ; and the penalty 
of sin is death, and either the penalty of your sin 
shall rest on Him, or, by your voluntary unbelief, 
it rests on you. God in Christ reconciled the world 



CHRIST LIFTED UP. 1 93 

unto Himself, and unto you He has imputed the 
work of reconciliation, and I bring to you God's 
ministry of reconciliation, — "He that believeth on 
Him is not condemned." I lift Him up, and call 
you to behold this Blessed One. 

" See from His head, His hands. His feet, 
Sorrow and love flow mingled down." 

I lift up to you a risen Christ ; not now dead, but 
risen from the dead, and I ask you to believe in 
Jesus Christ as your life. 

It is as though this body of mine, on account of 
my sins, had forfeited life, and I were lying upon 
this platform a corpse. My old life is at an end, 
and the eternal God draws near and infuses into 
this frame of mine, a new life, Christ Jesus in me. 
How many have yet to master this simplest propo- 
sition in the works of God? " I am crucified with 
Christ," said Paul ; I hung with Him upon the 
cross ; I was delivered with Him to death ; in the 
Greek it is " co-crucified." We have a partnership 
with Him, and not only were we crucified with 
Christ, we may say also with the Apostle, " Never- 
theless I live ; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." 
And I would have you realize this consciousness 
of the Christ-life within you. Some of you are 
conscious enough of what is meant by human life, 
and how many thoughts come springing up as we 
think of what life is — power, friendship, joy, sorrow, 
companionship. Oh, what a word is life ! But in 
contradistinction with the life of Christ, it is a poor 
little thing. 

9* 



194 CHRIST LIFTED UP. 

I thank God, that Christ nestles in this heart ; 
He is omnipotent and omnipresent. Do you ask 
how God can dwell in you ? Christ can make 
Himself infinitely little : " His name shall be called 
Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The ever- 
lasting Father, The Prince of Peace." " Not I, but 
Christ liveth in me," is the anthem and song of 
my daily life. And I say to every one here, that 
Christ offers you a life as infinitely above every- 
thing Adam possessed before He fell, as Christ is 
superior to Adam ; a life of eternal progression, of 
mighty development and boundless energy. God's 
power works in me mightily when I need it, and 
again is as quiet as a babe on its mother's breast. 
This beautiful life of dignity and ease and power, 
the life that Abraham possessed ; the life that 
Isaiah possessed ; that Ezekiel, Paul, Peter and 
John possessed : that I have, that you may have. 
If Christ is lifted up in your heart, Jesus Christ 
draws you unto Himself. You may boast that you 
are alive ; we who believe in God boast that we 
are dead. Let a farmer keep the seed in his barn, 
and what of the crop next fall ? And thus the man 
who refuses to die, refuses the gospel. 

This life is God's gift. See the woman coming 
out from Sychar, a city of Samaria, to the well ; 
between desire and satiety in constant motion, — 
a fitting type of human character, desire on one 
hand, satiety on the other ; but she comes in con- 
tact with the Son of God, and He tells her : " If 
thou knewest the gift of God, * * * thou wouldst 
have asked of Him, and He would have given thee 



CHRIST LIFTED UP. 1 95 

living water. The woman saith unto Him, * * * 
From whence then hast Thou that living water ? 
* * * Jesus answered and said unto her, * * * 
Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give 
him shall never thirst ; but the water that I shall 
give him shall be in him a well of water springing 
up into everlasting life. The woman saith unto 
Him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, 
neither come hither to draw." She was an adul- 
teress. I say this, because I am constantly meet- 
ing this difficulty. If there be a drunkard before 
me, he is as welcome as though his heart was 
broken for his sin. My friends, we must not have 
any hedges about God's well of living water ; we 
must not have it fenced up, so as to keep people 
outside. What we want is the living Christ. If a 
man were delirious with fever, would you say, 
" He is too bad for a physician ! Wait till the 
crisis has passed, and then call a physician." What 
a delusion ! and yet, that is the gospel that some 
are preaching ; — a man must make himself better, 
then there is salvation for him ! 

What does God say to the adulteress ? She 
asked and received God's gift of the living Christ, 
and the gift changed her completely, and her heart 
was purged of its sin, — God's workmanship new- 
fashioned ; and she went into Sychar a preacher of 
the gospel, saying, " Come, see a man which told 
me all things that ever I did : is not this the 
Christ ? " Christ is mighty to save, and I pray He 
will draw you to Him by the cords of His love, by 
the testimony of His Word, by a thousand influ- 



I96 CHRIST LIFTED UP. 

ences ; but I solemnly and affectionately charge and 
plead with you, do not resist the drawing of Christ. 
A London minister said, that God never went 
behind any man and pushed him to the cross. He 
never will ; He draivs by truth, by affection. And 
here let me beg of you, be not self-willed, be not 
doggedly set in your way. As Christ said unto the 
Jews, " Ye will not come to Me, that ye might 
have life." 

If you will not believe in Christ, then He will 
draw you to Him, — for no one can escape the 
drawing of Christ, — but alas ! alas ! He draws you 
for judgment. Yesterday morning I came in con- 
tact with two young men, who had been out in the 
filthiness of a New York night of debauch. Poor 
fellows, the mark of the animal was there, and I 
thought, if this is the outside, what must the inside 
be. Why does Christ produce such work as that ? 
And yet I have seen thousands of men who think it 
manly to be without Christ. I thank God for the 
drawing power of Jesus Christ, and whilst I depre- 
cate the loss of souls, ye who reject Christ, when 
He comes to judge all men, will also be rejected. ' I 
called and ye refused ; ye were deaf to My voice.' 
Oh, brethren, I charge you, reject not the drawing 
of Jesus Christ ! He is drawing you by the cords 
of His love. Come now to Jesus, and let His 
beautiful life flood your being, that you may say: 
' Not I, but Christ dwelleth in me.' From this 
hour let your winter be over and gone, and Christ 
dwell in you. Be not longer the slaves of sin, but 
the children of Jesus Christ. If the Son shall 



CHRIST LIFTED UP. I97 

make you free, you shall be free indeed ; free from 
self-will, free from dogged obstinacy. 

A man of understanding who knows not Christ, 
is like the beast that perisheth. Arouse, men, and 
see that the life of Christ is easy to live. It is an 
easy thing to do right when we live in Christ ; it is 
a hard thing to do wrong when a man has Christ : 
but alas, thousands of Christians are wedded to 
little better than a theory, — a mere matter of so 
many sermons and prayers. Thank God, we dwell 
with Him, He is our head. He did not invite you, 
to forsake you. " I, if I be lifted up, will draw all 
men unto Me." Grasp that thought, God dwells in 
us and we in Him. It is a grand thing to have a 
life we cannot lose ; a great thing to have a life co- 
equal to the duration of eternity in perpetuity ; a 
great thing to have a life which death cannot des- 
troy ; a great thing to have a life which, when 
temptations are before it, says " No." Will any of 
you say, 'I take Him as God's gift. He is mine. I 
receive Him now, for God's gift is free.' I would 
that every one of you would say, I know the life in 
Christ, I am ' always bearing about in the body the 
dying of Jesus Christ, that the life also of Jesus 
might be made manifest in my body ; ' for our life is 
always delivered unto death, and Christ died that 
the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in 
our flesh. 

I am bound to tell .you how satisfied I am with 
the life of Christ. I thank God for it. It is a life 
glorious to possess. " I am come that they might 
have life, and that they might have it more abun- 



I98 CHRIST LIFTED UP. 

dantly :" a life that goes on in endless progression 
for ever and ever. This is the gospel ; what a 
glorious theme. I am not insensible to the impor- 
tant place commerce occupies, but in view of eternal 
salvation, it sinks out of sight. I came here, not to 
preach a system, but Christ. Some of you have 
been living in self; get out of self and live in 
Christ. Put off the old man which is corrupt, and 
put on the new man. Suppose I had a fine pic- 
ture, and a wretched daub, do you think I would 
spend my time looking at that thing, and touching 
it up here and there, trying to improve it ? Some 
of you have been patching up your old self ; it is 
crucifixion and death and burial that it needs. 
Take in the glory of this, God's Christ in us. I 
don't want any other light. I would say, as Martin 
Luther said, " If any man knock at my heart, and 
ask who liveth here, I shall say, not Martin Luther, 
but Jesus Christ." Such is the gospel, and would 
I could leave with you this great joy. " Unto Him 
that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His 
own blood, and hath made us kings and priests 
unto God and His Father ; to Him be glory and 
dominion for ever and ever. Amen." 




THE UNJUST STEWARD 



3^C 



HE portion of God's Word to which I desire 
now to call your attention, is the deeply in- 
structive parable of the Unjust Steward ; and 
before remarking upon it, I will ask you to turn 
with me to the sixteenth chapter of St. Luke's 
Gospel, and let us read it : — 

And He said also unto His disciples, There was a 
certain rich man, which had a steward; and the same was 
accused unto him that he had wasted his goods. And 
he called him, and said unto him, How is it that I hear 
this of thee? give an account of thy stewardship; for 
thou mayest be no longer steward. 

Then the steward said within himself, What shall I 
do ? for my lord taketh away from me the stewardship : I 
cannot dig ; to beg I am ashamed. I am resolved what 
to do, that, when I am put out of the stewardship, they 
may receive me into their houses. 

So he called every one of his lord's debtors unto him, 
and said unto the first, How much owest thou unto my 
lord? And he said, A hundred measures of oil. And he 
said unto him, Take thy bill, and sit down quickly, and 
write fifty. Then said he to another, And how much 
(i99) 



200 THE UNJUST STEWARD. 

owest thou ? And he said, A hundred measures of wheat. 
And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and write fourscore. 
And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he 
had done wisely : for the children of this world are in 
their generation wiser than the children of light. 

And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the 
mammon of unrighteousness ; that, when ye fail, they 
may receive you into everlasting habitations. He that is 
faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much : 
and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. 
If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous 
mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? 
And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another 
man's, who shall give you that which is your own ? 

I wish you to note the principal things given to 
us in the verses which I have read. First, we have 
a certain rich man who had a steward. The stew- 
ard is unfortunate and wastes his lord's goods; 
therefore the lord commands him to appear before 
him and give an account of his stewardship. The 
steward fears he will be put out of his stewardship; 
the best course to pursue under the circumstances, 
is what is just now occupying his mind. He does 
not appear to have robbed his master, but he had 
wasted his goods. So he determined he would 
make his master's debtors accomplices to some 
extent with himself. And he called them together 
and said, to one and to another, How much owest 
thou to my master ? These two examples are only 
a few of the many. 

How artful it is, the way he acts. He says to 
this one, Take thy bill and sit down quickly and 



THE UNJUST STEWARD, 201 

write fifty; to the other, Write fourscore. Notice, 
that it is all in the handwriting of the men them- 
selves, so that they were silenced. Very clever he 
was, — he was a very shrewd thief, — he did it well. 
His lord found it out and commended the steward ; 
but you are not to suppose it was the Lord Jesus 
Christ. 

So far the history concerns the steward ; but from 
this point the Lord Jesus takes hold, as He so 
often does in human affairs. He says, The children 
of this world are in their generation wiser than the 
children of light. Oh, what a melancholy truth 
that is. Take business men ; what activity and 
energy they display ; take it in any department 
you please, the world is right up to the mark in all 
things. But alas ! alas ! this is not so with the 
children of God. The children of the world are in 
their generation wiser than the children of light. 
Let me ask you to find occasion in your spiritual 
life to be as energetic as you are in your business 
life. Are you as really anxious about the health of 
your soul, as you make it your earnest study that 
your body shall be strong ? If you have any bodily 
affliction, you want to be restored. I remind you 
that God desires above all things, that we have 
spiritual prosperity : are you careful about your, 
soul's spiritual health ? Are you striving in watch- 
ful prayerfulness ? ' Do you realize that you are 
living not for time, but for eternity ? not for the 
world, but for heaven ; not for pleasure, but to 
shine forth His praise, who hath called you out of 
the darkness into the light. Instead of the Chris- 



202 THE UNJUST STEWARD. 

tian life we should be living, how many Christians 
are living a life that is a poor dwarfed thing. Not 
only is this the case in reference to our personal 
experience, but it is true of those engaged in the 
work of Christ. 

Sunday School Teachers, are you as attentive in 
your Sunday School as you are in your business ? 
We have Sunday School twice a day, and the books 
show that the attendance of teachers in the after- 
noon is about half of that in the morning. When 
would you dare treat an earthly employer like that ? 
Suppose you said to your employer, ' Well, it was 
damp this morning, and I had not my umbrella, and 
I thought that I would not come to work.' I 
verily believe that the devil seems to comb some 
people down smoothly after their regeneration. 
And mark the solemn reproof for this, " The chil- 
dren of this world are in their generation wiser 
than the children of light." 

Now notice, " And J say unto you, Make to your- 
selves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness." 
What is meant by this ? I see, for example, a 
worldly man, of power and education and riches ; a 
man of business ; a man who uses all these powers 
well, and makes them tell among his fellow men. 
If he has attained a certain political position, he 
says, Higher — "Excelsior ! " And so the idea of 
progress is always before the earnest spirit of a 
man who is looking after some higher attainment. 
Thank God, there are many who possess a great 
amount of stock in trade. God has given to you, 
perhaps, a gift of speech. Well, use it for Him. 



THE UNJUST STEWARD. 203 

Again, some of you possess money. I beg of you, 
let that money be expended for Christ. Money 
may be turned into ships and bread and missionary 
enterprises. 

Christ says : — " Make to yourselves friends of 
the mammon of unrighteousness ; that, when ye 
fail, they may receive you into everlasting habita- 
tions." I dare say, some of you have been puzzled 
about the meaning of this. I tell you, I believe 
it means you and 1 are regenerated when we are 
taken out of the world. Turn to the first chapter of 
the epistle of Galatians, fourth verse. Speaking cf 
the work of Christ's apostles, it says : " Who gave 
Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us 
from this present evil world, according to the will 
of God and our Father." Now, every believer in 
Christ is delivered from this present evil world. 
You can say to-day you are not a citizen of New 
York but of heaven. All your life dates from that 
centre. You have no right to say that you are a 
citizen of this world, for it is not true, since He has 
adopted you into His family and redeemed you. 
Then let all the issues of your life tend where your 
life has its source and spring and flow. And when 
you fail in this world they may " receive you into 
everlasting habitations," — it will not be by fraud. 
How inspiring the thought of the welcome we shall 
receive from those we have been instrumental in 
saving. They have died and gone before, and they 
will receive us into the everlasting habitations. 

But the poor worldly soul, while death is feeling 
at his heart strings, — what account can he render 



204 THE UNJUST STEWARD. 

for wasted powers ? Oh that men should be such 
fools, staking existence upon the poor posses- 
sions of the present. " Lay not up for yourselves 
treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth 
corrupt and where thieves break through and steal, 
but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where 
moth and rust cannot corrupt and where thieves do 
not break through and steal." And even thus we 
would have abundant entrance into the everlasting 
kingdom of Christ. Not as though we had been 
faithless, but because we have been faithful to Him 
who shall say, "Well done, thou good and faithful 
servant, thou hast been faithful over few things, I 
will make thee ruler over many." 

Now turn to the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew. 
The close of the chapter gives us the judgment of 
Christ. Read from the thirty-first verse : — 

"When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and 
all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the 
throne of his glory : and before him shall be gathered 
all nations : and he shall separate them one from 
another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the- goats : 
and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the 
goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them 
on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, in- 
herit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation 
of the world. " 

Particularly notice the next verses : — 

" For I was a hungered, and ye gave me meat : I was 
thirsty, and ye gave me drink : I was a stranger, and ye 
took me in : naked, and ye clothed me : I was sick, and 
ye visited me : I was in prison, and ye came unto me. 



THE UNJUST STEWARD. 205 

Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, 
when saw we thee a hungered, and fed thee ? or thirsty, 
and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, 
and took thee in ? or naked, and clothed thee ? Or 
when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? 
And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily 
I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto 
one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it 
unto me." 

Now notice the personal pronouns through the 
whole judgment. He refers to Himself > — 

' ' Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, 
Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared 
for the devil and his angels : For I was a hungered, and 
ye gave me no meat : I was thirsty, and ye gave me no 
drink : I w r as a stranger, and ye took me not in : naked, 
and ye clothed me not : sick, and in prison, and ye 
visited me not. 

• Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when 
saw we thee a hungered, or athirst, or a stranger, or 
naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto 
thee ? Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say 
unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least 
of these, ye did it not to me. 

And these shall go away into everlasting punishment : 
but the righteous into life eternal." 

How any man dares to trifle with the truth in 

the face of the eternal doom of the wicked, I am 

at a loss to understand. Christ says in the final 

tribunal, "These shall go away into everlasting 

punishment and these into life eternal." 
10 



206 THE UNJUST STEWARD. 

I pray you keep to these words ; they are your 
strength and salvation, and you have no time to 
lose. Are you in the habit of visiting the prisons 
in your city ? Are you in business for Christ ? 
Are you making your profession of Christianity, 
child's play? Are you wont to make your business 
contribute to the glory of God ? Did you ever 
notice that verse in the book of Titus, " Put them 
in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, 
to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good 
work." How many Christians there are in busi- 
ness which does not honor their God. I could not 
imagine a man having to do with distilleries or rum 
shops, and calling himself a Christian. I tell you 
until we get the gospel of Christ into practical 
woiks, men will not believe we are really Christians. 
You, perhaps, may tell me I can make fifty thousand 
dollars. What is that to me ? I was not redeemed 
to make money. In the south of England I came 
in contact with a man who was a brewer and a 
leading officer in a church ; he wanted me to come 
and dwell with him. I wrote and said, " Has Christ 
to say of you, that you are a leading officer in the 
church and yet the greatest Sabbath breaker in 
Dover ? Did God redeem you to open the door, 
Sunday after Sunday, inviting working men away 
from their homes ? Do you say to alter your course 
would cost you half your fortune ? Let it go ! " I 
told him I would rather come and share a crust 
with him in a lowly cottage, than dwell with him in 
splendor, secured by such means. Oh, my friends, 
I ask you to be careful that to you it may be said 



THE UNJUST STEWARD. 207 

by the great Master, "Thou hast been faithful over 
a few things, I will make thee ruler over many 
things." I ask you, brethren, are you faithful in 
your own households ? I have found it easy to go 
upon a platform and make an oratorical display, 
and yet when the piece of fireworks is over I am no 
stronger in Christ, I feel that it is child's play. 

I remember praying, Oh, God, just make me 
faithful in little things. One Sunday night, after I 
had been speaking to about two thousand people, 
when I came down the platform steps, a little 
fellow standing there said, " I want to talk to you 
about Jesus." It was God's answer to my prayer, 
and it was a real joy to me to take this little fellow 
alone, and speak with him as tenderly and earnestly 
as though I had been standing before the crowd 
who were listening to me fifteen minutes before. 
You and I are in danger of not being faithful in 
little things. We have a proverb in England, " If 
you take care of the pence, the pounds will take 
care of themselves." I verily think the difficulty 
is, not to be faithful in large spheres, but to be 
constantly with Him in His mighty teachings. 
His mightiest lessons were made to individuals. I 
entreat you to be faithful. Remember, you have 
received from your blessed God, the true riches. 
Use what you have, if you have not much. You 
may say, perhaps, our place of meeting is a little 
one. I am not sorry for that, for most of God's 
prosperity comes in the midst of circumstances we 
would not choose. Many churches have been 
blessed with such a tide of prosperity ; the church 



208 THE UNJUST STEWARD. 

may have been small, and in some back street, and 
a man of wealth comes along and says, " Here you 
are doing a great work ; you ought to be in a better 
church ; I'll start the list," and your efforts after 
that are all centered on getting the wretched money, 
and when it is finished and you are in your new 
church, you might have written " Ichabod " on the 
spiritual prosperity of that place. If this appears 
to be severe, you know it is only exceeded in 
severity by its truth. 

Be faithful to Him, for you have got a grand 
opportunity. Let us give our eyes to Him, that 
He may weep over sinners ; give Him our hands, 
that He may yearn over sinners. I beseech you, 
see to it that you walk with Him in the beautiful 
surrender of an undivided heart. There is a word 
the French use a great deal, the word " abandon." 
I would like to say, abandon yourselves to Christ. 
If He wants you to speak to one little child, or to 
thousands, don't hold up a finger to tell which it 
shall be. 

I want to impress this thought upon you, that 
you have the opportunity. If the angels in heaven 
had your opportunity, not one would be in heaven 
in a quarter of an hour. As we leave off here, we 
shall begin in the world to come. Oh, that we may 
not only know what it is to be in possession of the 
true riches, but to use them ; may we strive to use 
the powers God has given us. This is a life of 
perfect freedom. Be a man in the fight. Be a 
hero in the strife ! Shall we be laggards in the 
race? Oh, stand firm, acquit ye like men. We are 



THE UNJUST STEWARD. 2CK) 

called to as glorious a service as it is possible for 
the human mind to contain, and Christ stands 
ready to say to us, " Well done, thou good and 
faithful servant : thou hast been faithful over a few 
things, I will make thee ruler over many things." 
Be faithful to Him, if you want an increase of faith. 
Use what thou hast, and thy Master shall develop, 
and God shall stand ready to receive you into His 
presence with His, "Well done," and ye shall say, 
" Not unto us." The Lord bless these thoughts to 
each one of you. 




THE SEVENTH OF ROMANS. 



&Ki 



HE seventh chapter of Romans is my theme 
to-day, and first of all, I desire you to note 
the brief statement that I make of the argu- 
ment of the apostle in this experience. In the first 
chapter, we have God's testimony concerning the 
condition of the whole heathen world. In the 
second chapter, we have God's testimony concerning 
Israel. The chapters differ in that great distinction, 
that God gave His verdict on the world without 
revelation ; then to that people that hath its rise in 
Abraham, the friend of God. And God testifies 
alike concerning man without revelation and Israel 
with revelation. He said, they are alike and alto- 
gether corrupt. Hence, in the third chapter, we 
read, the whole world is guilty before God. Look 
at this chapter, nineteenth verse, " Now we know 
that what things soever the law saitb, it saith to 
them who are under the law : that every mouth may 
be stopped, and all the world may become guilty 
before God." Every mouth and all the world ; not 
merely the world as such, but the entire human 

(210) 



THE SEVENTH OF ROMANS. 211 

family, 'every mouth and alt the world;' "there- 
fore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be 
justified in His sight : for by the law is the knowl- 
edge of sin. But now the righteousness of God 
without the law is manifested, being witnessed by 
the law and the prophets ; even the righteousness 
of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all 
them that believe." Mark that word ; let me em- 
phasize it ; upon all that believe. 

In the fourth chapter, we have demonstrated two 
characters which, in the past history of the world, 
illustrate the principle just laid down. One is 
Abraham, the other is David. Abraham believes 
on God, and it is accounted unto him for righteous- 
ness. And David is the man of whom it is said, 
1 Blessed is the man to whom God imputeth right- 
eousness without works.' I pray you, give up the 
labor of trying to be worthy by your works, for 
there is no difference, all have sin. At the close 
of the fourth chapter, we learn that "it was not 
written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to 
him ; but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, 
if we believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord 
from the dead- ; who was delivered for our offences, 
and was raised again for our justification." In the 
fifth chapter, we are justified by faith, and there- 
fore, being justified, "we have peace with God 
through our Lord Jesus Christ." And so it enlarges 
upon the blessedness of the condition into which 
faith brings us, till we read at the close of the 
chapter, " Moreover the law entered, that the of- 
fence might abound. But where sin abounded, 



212 THE SEVENTH OF ROMANS. 

grace did much more abound." The law is like 
the probing-knife of the physician, it discovers the 
disease of sin. 

The argument is carried on from the fifth to the 
end of the eighth chapter ; the sixth and seventh 
are a kind of parenthesis. And we read in the 
eighth chapter : 

There is therefore now no condemnation to them 
which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, 
but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in 
Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and 
death. For what the law could not do, in that it was 
weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the 
likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in 
the flesh. 

What can we do ? The law cannot justify trans- 
gressions ; it must condemn them. What the law 
could not do, God sent His own Son in the likeness 
of sinful flesh to do. He judged and condemned 
and punished sin. 

Now, I want you to remember, that the apostle 
in these chapters, sixth and seventh, first of all 
shows us what our position is. In the sixth chap- 
ter and third verse, " Know ye not, that so many 
of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were bap- 
tized into His death ? " That is, we have fellowship 
in death ; we are buried with Him, and like as 
Christ was raised up from the dead, even so we 
shall walk in newness of life : and shall you bury 
the Lord Jesus Christ this side of the cross ? If 
He had not died, then any one would have a right 



THE SEVENTH OF ROMANS. 213 

to come into the same position ; but if He died, 
then are you in the same position. If Christ was 
buried, then have you been buried. Think seri- 
ously of the fact, that you have been delivered to 
death in Christ, and as truly as Christ has risen 
from the dead, so are you, who believe in Him. 
Never think of your former experience, for all that 
has past away. 

That being the case, look at the seventh chapter 
of Romans ; it takes up the argument : 

Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that 
know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a 
man as long as he liveth ? For the woman which hath a 
husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as 
he liveth ; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from 
the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband 
liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called 
an adulteress : but if her husband be dead, she is free 
from that law ; so that she is no adulteress, though she 
be married to another man. 

Observe the illustration ; here a woman is intro- 
duced upon the scene. While she is married to a 
husband, she has no power to release herself from 
the obligation ; law and the husband both hold her ; 
but if her husband dies, she is obviously free from 
the husband. Notice the fourth verse, " Wherefore, 
my brethren, ye also arc become dead to the law 
by the body of Christ." We never speak about 
the body of men till death has supervened. Where- 
fore ye take into account that the Lord Jesus Christ 
was made a curse for us, and by His death delivered 



214 THE SEVENTH OF ROMANS. 

us from the bondage of the law ; by no power 
possible could we liberate ourselves. The law can 
demand obedience to all its details and exact its 
penalties. 

Such being the case, the Lord Jesus Christ has 
come to redeem, and through love He has accom- 
plished His work. "Wherefore, my brethren, ye 
also are become dead to the law by the body of 
Christ ; that ye should be married to another, even 
to Him who is raised from the dead, that we should 
bring forth fruit unto God." To whom are you 
married ? To the Lord ? because if so, the apostle 
says, " When we were in the flesh, the motions of 
sins, which were by the law, did work in our mem- 
bers to bring forth fruit unto death." We have a 
great truth contained in this seventh chapter of 
Romans, that application of the law as a will. It 
works in our members to bring forth fruit unto 
death ; it cannot do otherwise, for man is a trans- 
gressor. This is so, not because the law is sinful 
and weak, but you and I are weak ; the law is just 
and holy, but we are utterly unable to be obedient 
to the law. Obedient, married to another, for the 
object of Christ's coming was to bring us away 
from condemnation into justification. United to 
the law, it was : " Cursed be every one who contin- 
ueth not to do them ; " united to Christ, " we have 
an advocate with the Father." We have not a 
Lord to condemn, but one who is mighty to save. 
He says to us, if we think we have no sin, we 
deceive ourselves, and my faith is that He is faithful 
and just and will forgive my sins, — faithful and 



THE SEVENTH OF ROMANS. 215 

just to forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from 
all unrighteousness. Such is the result of being 
married to Christ. He is not united to us in the 
thoughts of condemnation ; not in a legal covenant, 
but in a covenant of love, and its culmination, the 
glories of heaven. 

Now let us carefully proceed. " But now we are 
delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we 
were held ; that we should serve in newness of 
spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter." That 
does not mean we are without law, for the apostle 
says, " Not without law to God, but under the law 
to Christ." Let me give you an illustration. We 
as parents do not rule our children by law ; it is a 
bond of love between the children and ourselves. 
God has tried law, and the law has failed, because 
man was a transgressor. God has tried love, and 
love casteth out fear. When you know God loves 
you perfectly, it will cast out all fear, and we shall 
be able to bring Him the outcoming affections 
of our hearts, and love to do the will of Him who 
loves as God loves. 

All through this chapter, observe the absence 
of the name of the Lord Jesus Christ till the close ; 
there are plenty of pronouns, but no name men- 
tioned, and therefore I think we cannot fail to see 
what the apostle is doing ; he is just illustrating 
what he said would come, namely, That the law is 
applied to the light of long continued experience ; 
when I speak about this passage, do not suppose 
I agree with those who s.ay that this is a descrip- 
tion of Paul's experience, still in a legal condition. 



2l6 THE SEVENTH OF ROMANS. 

It shows us God's interpretation, that if the law be 
applied, such is the law that it cannot but work in 
the direction of condemnation to us. 

Notice what follows : " Is the law sin ? God for- 
bid." Nothing could allow such a thought. " Nay, 
I had not known sin, but by the law : for I had not 
known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt 
not covet. But sin, taking occasion by the com- 
mandment, wrought in me all manner cf concupis- 
cence. For without the law sin was dead. For I 
was alive without the law once : but when the 
commandment came, sin revived and I died." I 
want you to see the beauty of that. I was alive 
without law once, but directly law came with its 
power, in testimony cf God's holiness, — God will 
by no means clear the guilty, — then my own sin- 
fulness came to light. When I saw this, I was 
thankful to find my way to the cross. If I were to 
transgress against the laws of England, the law 
would punish me ; it demands its penalties, and so 
does God's law. Oh, beloved friends, let me appeal 
to you solemnly, if there is a soul before me taken 
up with the idea, that " I am going to be justified 
by my attempts to keep from sin," I can hear God's 
sentence confronting your probably fatal mistake. 
Paul says, 'When the law came, sin revived ;' he 
does not say, ' My attempts to obey,' but, ' Sin 
stood up before me, and I died.' He did not escape 
the penalty ; no, he did suffer the penalty cf that 
broken law. This is the object of Christ's coming 
into the world. This is why we grasp the fact that 
we arc dead with Him. However misunderstood 



THE SEVENTH OF ROMANS. 217 

by others, the believer in Christ knows it is his 
song of gladness. I wonld rather hold that one 
guarantee of not being condemned in the days to 
come, than to boast as Paul boasted, that touching 
the law as God gave it, he is blameless. The 
believer in Christ boasts that he is dead with 
Christ. 

Notice, " The commandment, which was ordained 
to life." I don't think the commandment was 
ordained to life in the sense generally understood. 
The law was to be our school-master to bring us 
unto Jesus ; to show us our sinfulness and need of 
a Saviour ; and then the apostle says, " I found to 
be unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the 
commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me." 
How this man comes back to the place of death ; 
no matter what part of his experience he refers to, 
he seems to rush back to his sense of his death in 
Christ as quickly as he can : — 

Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment 
holy, and just, and good. Was then that which is good 
made death unto me ? God forbid. But sin, that it 
might appear sin, working death in me by that which is 
good ; that sin by the commandment might become 
exceeding sinful. 

And to-day, I take it there is not one of us who 
has walked with God in the light, — let me say, we 
are all called to walk in the light, it is in the light 
that the discovery of sin is made ; perhaps some 
of us may go out in the sunshine and find our 
garments not so good as we thought them j it is 
10* 



2l8 THE SEVENTH OF ROMANS. 

not because they are not so good, only because we 
are in the light ; as we walk with God in the light, 
the discovery of sin must ensue. 

I am not surprised that Paul says, "This is a 
faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that 
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners ; 
of whom I am chief." He said this just before his 
death. It is a blessed thing to have a deep sense 
of the power of sin. I would that all of you had a 
deeper detestation of sin. Sometimes I have heard 
it remarked, that in consequence of the teachings 
of friends with whom I am associated, I have been 
spoken of as though I believed I was without sin. 
Believe me, I have no character to lose, I gave it 
to God long ago ; but I say that I mourn deeply, 
that any should ever have such low thoughts of sin. 
Sin to me is not what I am conscious of, sins that 
1 don't know ; for I would not make my conscious- 
ness the gauge of what sin is. Shall children of 
the loving God say they are without sin ? No. 

Sin, to some people, is merely a kind of negative 
thing. I will tell you how I regard righteousness. 
Suppose I see a tree full of corrupt fruit ; though I 
take every particle of fruit from the tree, I don't 
make it a good tree. You think if you cease from 
sin, you are sinless ! What a horrid delusion ! 
Our consciousness is not the measure of sin, for 
one-third of the Jewish sacrifices were for the sins 
of ignorance. Ceasing from sin is not right eotis- 
ness ! More than this, if there were no positive sin 
attached to you, that would not make you righteous. 
The nature of the tree must be changed. There 



THE SEVENTH OF ROMANS. 2ig 

you have God's idea of righteousness. That which 
troubles me is not the commission of actual trans- 
gression, but I mourn when I think how little fruit 
I bring to Him who redeemed us. God arouse you 
all, to know what sin is, for as you grow into a 
hatred of sin, and you love the law, — for the law is 
holy, — I am bound to say with David, that though 
it condemns me, I pronounce it good and love it. 
As you grow in increasing fellowship with God, it 
brings out the evil, till sin shall be loathsome, — till 
you turn away from self and sin to look fully on 
Him who is our righteousness and our life. " For 
we know that the law is spiritual : but I am carnal, 
sold under sin." The apostle is now speaking of 
his new nature, the Christ-life and the old one, and 
they war against each other. We have a proverb, 
that " nature abhors a vacuum/' and I can say, that 
is true of grace. If we want to know most of the 
Christ-life and least of the energy of the flesh, then 
we must be sure we possess the life of Christ, that 
will enable us to keep our foot on the neck of evil. 
Let us cleanse ourselves from all sinfulness. Is 
this compatible with an increase of the sense of 
sin ? Remember in the sixth chapter of Isaiah, 
how the glory of Jehovah caused the prophet to 
say, " Woe is me ! for I am undone ; because I am 
a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst 
of a people of unclean lips." He is speaking of his 
past experience. There is a diversity of opinion as 
to what Paul meant in the next few verses. He 
must have referred either to past experience or an 
exceptional case. If you will grant mc that it was 



220 THE SEVENTH OF ROMANS. 

an exceptional thing in the apostle's history, then 
I go with you ; but if you want to make out it was 
a common thing for him to be troubled, I cannot 
allow that. I don't find it a difficult thing to do 
right, and could not understand being made a par- 
taker of the divine nature, and not liking to do 
right. Let us be careful here. If any one of us as 
God's children commit sin, is it not true that we 
find ourselves confronted by the accusations of 
conscience ? It is not possible that the divine life 
should be a failure ; that partaking of the divine 
nature should not give victory. 

Now notice : " If then I do that which I would 
not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now 
then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth 
in me. For I know that in me, (that is, in my 
flesh,) dwelleth no good thing : for to will is present 
with me ; but how to perform that which is good I 
find not." There you see is the " I," not the Christ- 
life, for the apostle distinctly says, " I know that in 
me dwelleth no good thing, for to will is present 
with me, but how to perform that which is good, I 
find not. For the good that I would I do not, but 
the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do 
that which I would not, it is no more I that do it, 
but sin that dwelleth in me." We must be careful 
here ; St. Paul does not mean to affirm that he is 
not guilty when he does what he would not. It is 
the old nature, but sin, all the same. 

My friends, let us be honest with ourselves. 
Take temper ; you have no more right to lose your 
temper than to be a thief. Some may say, temper 



THE SEVENTH OF ROMANS. 221 

is an infirmity. If you could be put in prison 
for twenty-four hours for losing temper, you would 
soon find it was not an infirmity. It is a wretched 
sin. For years I hindered my business by the 
manifestation of a hasty temper ; one never says 
the right thing in that condition. I became so 
disgusted with myself, that I determined to put the 
whole thing into the hands of the Lord, and I 
never shall forget the definiteness with which I 
told Him, " Lord, I am utterly powerless, take me 
in hand." And the Lord has kept it down, so that 
I have not seen its manifestation for years. I am 
sure grace will make us strongest in the weakest 
points of our character. I find always a recognition 
of the two lives, the old and new, the Christ-life 
and the Saul-of-Tarsus-life ; and often we shall find 
the old life coming up, if we do not watch it. There 
are mighty forces for evil within us, but there is 
also One force which is almighty ; there are mighty 
forces without, but there is One who is mightier 
than them all, — and if we dwell in Him and He in 
us, that Almighty power will take our part always. 
But, continues St. Paul, " I see another law in my 
members, warring against the law of my mind, and 
bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which 
is in my members. O wretched man that I am! 
who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" 
Well, some say, ' This brings us to the position we 
maintained ; we have struggled with sin, and we 
must bear the battle and defeat, till the body of sin 
is laid down in death.' I used to think so, but I 
don't now. I thank God, it is not failure but victory. 



222 THE SEVENTH OF ROMANS. 

Take the next verse in connection with it. " O 
wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me from 
the body of this death! I thank God through 
Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I 
myself serve the law of God ; but with the flesh the 
law of sin." It is a song of triumph. I grant you, 
it is a conflict ; but it is not conflict and defeat ; it 
is conflict and victory ! " I thank God ! " What 
for ? that sin oppresses ? No, — that we have the 
victory. Oh brethren, let us realize how indeed 
Christ liveth in us. There was a time when I used 
to think God had been merciful to me in putting 
away my sins, and that I must be exceedingly care- 
ful ; as though God had put me in some errand 
boy's position, and I must work my way up. 1 
thank God, I have got out of that. God gives us a 
fortune ; he don't make us errand boys. He gives 
us the beautiful, dignified life of Christ Jesus at 
once. " So then with the mind I myself serve the 
law of God ; but with the flesh the law of sin." 
Yes, blessed be God, the law of God we want to 
know what it is. We love it ; but we shall turn 
away from that law to the shelter of the loving 
Saviour, by whom we live ; who came not to curse, 
but to bless ; not to make us guilty, but innocent. 
O wicked man that I am ! Yes, when I think of 
myself; yes, until the gospel teaches the trium- 
phant anthem: "Thanks be to God, which giveth 
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 



THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 



'Y Dear Friends, I am going this afternoon 
to speak to you from Paul's Epistle to the 
IkYfM. Hebrews. The Lord Jesus Christ is the 
great metropolis of the Book of God. We have 
over our Royal Exchange in London these words : 
" The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof." 
And I think we could not have a better thought as 
the heading of the book of Hebrews than this : " It 
pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness 
dwell." If I were asked to write one word across 
every page of the book of Hebrews, I would write 
C-H-R-I-S-T. 

Now the first chapter : 

' ' God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake 
in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in 
these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath 
appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the 
worlds ; who being the brightness of his glory, and the 
express image of his person, and upholding all things by 
the word of his power, when he had by himself purged 
our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on 

high." 

(223 ) 



224 THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 

Here is a distinct statement of the creation of 
the world by the Lord Jesus Christ ; that He is the 
mighty Creator. From the formation of all created 
things, the apostle passes to the great fact, that He 
is the brightness of the Fathers glory and the 
express image of His person. The words, "express 
image," are suggested by the mould in which a coin 
is struck, — the die. Just so, Jesus Christ is the 
express image of the person of the Father. And 
mark, " Upholding all things by the word of His 
power." There is the present eternal power of the 
Christ of God. His hand upholds yonder sun ; 
His hand directs the shining stars ; His hand sus- 
tains this world in which we dwell. 

And then, " when He had by Himself purged 
our sins," so that, though they might nail both 
hands to the cross in putting away our sins, yet, 
when He hung there, He was mighty enough to 
uphold all things. Nevertheless, "when He had by 
Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right 
hand of the Majesty on high." The sweet thought 
suggested, is of a commander who has put to rout 
every enemy on the field, and now rests from the 
conflict. 

"Being made so much better than the angels, as he 
hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than 
they." 

Here is the platform cleared by the apostle for 
Christ alone. Now, as his argument proceeds, he 
contrasts Christ with the greatest form of created 
power we know, the angels ; and he says in the 



THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 225 

subsequent verse, that the Lord Jesus Christ is 
infinitely superior to them. And observe : 

"Unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou 
art my Son, this day have I begotten thee ? And again, 
I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son ? 
And again, when hebringeth in the first begotten into the 
world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship 
him. And of the angels he saith, Who maketh his 
angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire." 

Mark what the Father says to the Son : 

"Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever : a sceptre 
of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. Thou 
hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity." 

That is God's ideal character, — " Thou hast loved 
righteousness and hated iniquity." The world's 
ideal character is of a man who does not love right- 
eousness too much. Now God's ideal is, " Thou 
hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity ; there- 
fore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with 
the oil of gladness above thy fellows." 

"And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the 
foundation of the earth ; and the heavens are the works 
of thine hands. They shall perish, but thou remainest." 

Many of the most magnificent of earthly struc- 
tures have survived their builders, but here the 
builder survives. 

"They all shall wax old as doth a garment; and 
as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be 
changed : but thou art the same, and thy years shall not 



226 THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 

fail. But to which of the angels said he at any time, 
Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy 
footstool? Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth 
to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation ? " 

Thus in the first chapter, the apostle shows us 
Christ as the Creator of all things ; angels subject 
to Him, and the Son exalted by the Father to the 
highest point of regal power. Now, then, in the 
second chapter, says the apostle : 

" We ought to give the more earnest heed to the 
things which we have heard, lest at any time we should 
let them slip. For if the word spoken by angels was 
steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience re- 
ceived a just recompense of reward ; how shall we escape, 
if we neglect so great salvation." 

Now, observe, man is here introduced ; the object 
being to show that man is to be associated with the 
Lord Jesus Christ in the glory of the eternal future, 
and that is the argument now in this second chap- 
ter, and therefore it is We who are to give this 
earnest heed. Then, referring to the substitution of 
the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ witnessed by 
His miracles and power, he saith in the fifth verse, 
"Unto the angels hath He not put into subjection 
the world to come." Now, angels have been God's 
executors in times past, but it is not to angels that 
God has put into subjection the world to come, but 
to men ; and in order to this, God has stepped from 
the divine nature to the human, that He might 
raise the human to the divine ; and this was the 
purpose of Christ's coming into the world. 



THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 227 

" One in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, 
that thou art mindful of him ? or the son of man, that 
thou visitest him ? Thou madest him a little lower than 
the angels ; thou crownedst him with glory and honor, 
and didst set him over the works of thy hands." 

If you and I were to judge of men as we see 
them now, we should have to say that they are 
compassed with weakness and infirmities. But by 
Christ we see that all things are ours. The reason 
is now stated by the apostle : 

" Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. 
For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left 
nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not 
yet all things put under him. But we see Jesus, who 
was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering 
of death, crowned With glory and honor ; that he by the 
grace of God should taste death for every man. For it 
became him for whom are all things, and by whom are 
all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make 
the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. 
For both he that sanctifleth and they who are sanctified 
are all of one : for which cause he is not ashamed to call 
them brethren." 

I pause to ask, Do you believe this truth, that 
you are one with Christ ? He who sanctifleth is 
the Lord Jesus Christ, declared to be heir of all 
things, and we are joint heirs with Christ. I want 
you to notice how sweetly Jesus says, "I ascend 
unto My Father, and your Father ; and to My God, 
and your God." If you want to know the fruit of 
divine love, see it in this relation. 



228 THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 

Now, let me ask you to look at the commence- 
ment of the third chapter. " Wherefore, holy 
brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling," — do 
not ask your consciences whether you are holy: 
if I were to appeal to my own feelings, I should 
say, " As a man I am a poor sinful creature," but I 
hear God say I am a brother in Christ, and I do 
not dare to deny His word. " Wherefore, holy 
brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider 
the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, 
Christ Jesus ; who was faithful to Him that ap- 
pointed Him, as also Moses was faithful in all his 
house." 

Now, I shall. very rapidly pass over three or four 
chapters. Here is Moses, who now comes to bear 
his meed of testimony to the Lord Jesus Christ. 
He is the faithful servant, and now in contrast to 
the faithful Son, he leaves the platform to be occu- 
pied by Christ alone. Now, under the leadership 
of Moses, we have this lesson taught us by Israel: 
the heinousness of the sin of unbelief; and just as 
certainly the Holy Ghost stands in our midst, and 
warns us that we fall not through unbelief. Ob- 
serve, now, it is for us to believe. " Said I not 
unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou 
shouldest see the glory of God ? " And associated 
with Christ, now, I ask you to believe that, one with 
Him, all I am going to call your attention to belongs 
to us in unison with Himself. 

In the beginning of the fourth chapter, you have 
Moses' successor. Moses has come and sweetly 
spoken of Christ, and left the platform, and now 



THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 229 

you have Joshua. He seems to say, " It was not 
myself that I presented to you ; I was but a type 
of Jesus, who should lead you into the rest of God." 
And now along with Joshua comes the land flowing 
with milk and honey. The land says, " I was but a 
type of Christ." And not only so, but just as you 
have the Land and Joshua, you have the Sabbath 
spoken of; Joshua, and the Sabbath and the Land. 
They group their testimony to Christ, and leave 
the platform to be occupied by Christ alone. And 
then we are told in the twelfth verse, that " The 
word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper 
than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the 
dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints 
and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and 
intents of the heart." 

' ' Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is 
passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us 
hold fast our profession. For we have not a high priest 
which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmi- 
ties ; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet 
without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the 
throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find 
grace to help in time of need.'' 

Because there is not a Christian here but knows 
how resolutely he has to confront such thoughts as 
these : " I am not worthy. Who am I ? A poor 
worm." But we have an High Priest who can be 
touched with the feeling of our infirmities, and 
who has now passed into the heavens. How 
wonderful is the thought suggested by these words. 
1 1 



23O THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 

Shall you and I see the glory of God ? How ? 
By virtue of the High Priest. He has offered 
Himself. While you and I exercise faith in Him, 
we are transformed by the Spirit of the living 
God. And thus this fourth chapter closes, speak- 
ing to us in words of distinguishing power ; for, 
indeed, the Word is ointment to bind up the broken 
heart. 

W T hom have you in the fifth chapter introduced ? 
You have Aaron. You see Moses has come ; 
Joshua has come ; the Land has come ; the Sab- 
bath has come — at first God's rest from creation ; 
now it means our rest on account of redemption ; 
it is perpetual rest. We keep perpetual Sabbath 
from January 1st to December 31st, enchanted with 
the glory that is in us. There remaineth a rest to 
the people of God, for we are looking for the glory 
and finished work of Christ. 

And in this fifth chapter, you will find not only 
Aaron referred to, but you will find also Melchi- 
sedek. Why ? Because God made Aaron a priest 
forever after the order of Melchisedek. Melchi- 
sedek suddenly appeared on the scene, and was 
recognized by Abraham as God's priest. And 
Christ is a priest forever. He is no after-thought 
of God. God has followed Him up, as it were, 
through the ages. In the seventh chapter, twenty- 
third and twenty-fourth verses we read : 

"And they truly were many priests, because they were 
not suffered to continue by reason of death : but this 
man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable 
priesthood." 



THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 23 1 

The death of Jesus Christ becomes the ground- 
work of His everlasting priesthood. Melchiscdek 
hides himself and is gone, and Christ stands alone. 

" I other priests disdain, and laws and offerings too ; 
None but the bleeding Lamb, the mighty work can do." 

In the eighth chapter, you will find that the 
apostle refers to the olden covenant. Be reminded 
of this fact, that the olden covenant was not perfect, 
because it was weak through the flesh ; but the 
days have come when Christ shall establish the 
new. Under the law there was continually the 
remembrance of sin. Under the law it is written : 
"Cursed is every one that continueth not in all 
things which are written in the book of the law to 
do them." Under the Gospel it is written, " I will 
be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins 
and their iniquities will I remember no more." 
Now, in the ninth chapter, blessed be God, we still 
go back into the history of the past, and we read 
these words : 

' ' Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of 
divine service, and a worldly sanctuary. For there was a 
tabernacle made ; the first wherein was the candlestick, 
and the table, and the shew-bread ; which is called the 
sanctuary. And after the second vail, the tabernacle 
which is called the Holiest of all." 

Here the tabernacle speaks the name of Christ. 
The candlestick says, ' I was but a type of Him 
who is the Light of the world ; ' the table of shew- 
bread says, ' I did but speak of Him who came 
down from heaven, and is the Bread of Life.' In 



232 THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 

the holiest of all, we find the golden censer, the 
golden pot of manna, Aaron's red that budded, the 
tables of the law, and the Ark of the Covenant, 
where was the place of premised blessing. " There 
will I meet with thee and commune with thee." 
In that ark you know were placed those two tables 
of stone, and the mercy seat covered the law. 
Christ and His word must be removed out of the 
way before any soul that trusts in Him can receive 
the condemnation of the law. 

The apostle refers to the offerings in the service, 
of which every bullock speaks of Christ ; every 
goat speaks of Christ, and every lamb speaks of 
the Lamb which taketh away the sins of the world. 
All have one testimony ; they speak of Christ. 

"For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes 
of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the 
purifying of the flesh : how much more shall the blood 
of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself 
without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead 
works to serve the living God ? " 

And then we have previous testimony concerning 
the Testator : 

"And for this cause he is the mediator of the new 
testament, that by means of death, for the redemption 
of the transgressions that were under the first testament, 
they which are called might receive the promise of 
eternal inheritance." 

If you want to know what you are worth to-day, 
go and look at the will of your God. " A testament 



THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 233 

is in force after men are dead ; " and Christ has 
died, and when I want to know what I am worth, I 
go and turn over His precious will. The chapter 
closes, and here again the platform is clear and 
Christ stands alone. 

"And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after 
this the judgment : so Christ was once offered to bear the 
sins of many ; and unto them that look for him shall he 
appear the second time without sin unto salvation. For 
the law having a shadow of good things to come, and 
not the very image of the things, can never with those 
sacrifices which they offered year by year continually, 
make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would 
they not have ceased to be offered ? because that the wor- 
shipers once purged should have had no more conscience 
of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance 
again made of sins every year. For it is not possible 
that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away 
sins. Wherefore, when he cometh into the world, he 
saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a 
body hast thou prepared me : in burnt-offering:; and 
sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said 
I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written 
of me,) to do thy will, O God. " 

Christ Jesus comes, born of a woman, unto us, 
so that we can say He is part of our body, our 
flesh, our bones ; and we are His. Oh the blessed- 
ness of a union with Christ. He has lifted us up 
from being worms to being princes with God. 
Sons and daughters of the living God ! That law 
which was against us, He has taken out of the way 
and nailed to the cross. And now there comes a 
solemn warning : 



234 THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 

"He that despised Moses' law, died without mercy 
under two or three witnesses : of how much sorer pun- 
ishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who 
hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath 
counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was 
sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto 
the Spirit of grace ? " 

My sister, I could weep over you, when I find 
you taken up with trifles instead of Christ. My 
brother, my heart is full of sorrow, when I see you 
drawing together trifles light as air, and meanwhile 
selling your birthright. Many of you are loving 
sin. You think if you were to receive Christ, you 
would be a loser. Many thousands of young hearts 
have this black, horrid thought, that if they were 
to receive Christ, they would be plunged into 
poverty. Let a blind man who has recovered his 
sight burst into tears ; that would be reasonable ; 
but that the heart should refuse Christ through 
fear of diminished happiness is fearful. 

How beautifully does the eleventh ehaptei open : 

" Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the 
evidence of things not seen. For by it the ciders obtained 
a good report. Through faLh we understand that the 
worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things 
which are seen were not made of things which do 
appear." 

Now, observe, we have a different kind of testi- 
mony. We have just finished with the Mosaic 
economy. We have had the law saying, " I was 
but a shadow." Now all creation comes and says, 



THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 235 

" We declare Christ unto you." Every star speaks 
to us of Him who was revealed to the wise men by 
a star. The sun says, " I speak to you of the Sun 
of righteousness which has arisen with healing in 
His wings." Yonder blue vault of heaven speaks 
of the lustre of the house to which He is gathering 
His people. Now we go right back to Abtl. He 
comes with his slaughtered lamb, and pointing to 
Christ, he says, " That is why I did not choose my 
brother's kind of offering. I heard God say, ' With- 
out the shedding of blood is no remission of sins.' " 
And so he took the type of the Lamb of God. 

And next to Abel comes Enoch. He " walked 
with God : and he was not ; for God took him." 
He says, " Christ was my life ; and it was from 
Him I received the testimony that I pleased Him, 
and He took me home." And when Enoch is 
gone, Noah comes with his ark, every timber of 
which speaks of Christ. The storm overwhelms 
all without, but all is safe within. The higher the 
waters of judgment rise, the nearer do they bear 
the vessel to its home. 

Abraham, when called to go into a place which 
he should after receive for an inheritance, went 
out, not knowing whither. And he says, I did this, 
because I wished to witness for Christ : " For he 
looked for a city which hath foundations, whose 
builder and maker is God." The voice of Sarah 
too is heard in the long line of illustrious ones who 
believe, " because she judged Him faithful who had 
promised." And so they all come trooping to this 
platform, bearing testimony to Christ. 



22,6 THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 

Thus this chapter finishes speaking to us in 
these glorious words : " And these all, having ob- 
tained a good report through faith, received not 
the promise : God having provided some better 
thing for us, that they without us should not be 
made perfect." They all looked unto Jesus, the 
author and finisher of their faith. See to it, that 
your eye be upon Him. You and I are united to 
Him, soon to be acknowledged as His, very likely 
before we ever have a chance to meet again. 
Walk worthy of the high vocation wherewith God 
doth call you, the loins of your mind being girded 
with truth. 

"Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with 
so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every 
weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and 
let us run with patience the race that is set before us, 
looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith ; 
who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the 
cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right 
hand of the throne of God. For consider him that 
endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, 
lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. Ye have 
not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. And 
ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto 
you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the 
chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked 
of him : for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and 
scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure 
chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons ; for what 
son is he whom the father chasteneth not ? But if ye be 
without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are 
ye bastards, and not sons. " 



THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 2^J 

Does some poor suffering child of God say, 
" How little is my conscious experience like what 
you have portrayed ! " Listen. He tells us not to 
be distressed by sorrow. You are chastened, are 
you ? Well, " we have had fathers of our flesh 
which corrected us, and we gave them reverence." 
But our God sitteth as the refiner and purifier of 
silver. He never uses the amputating knife when 
the pruning knife will do. 

Now, you are not come unto Mount Sinai, but 
ye are come unto Mount Zion. Remember, ye 
are come unto Zion ; not ye shall come by and 
by, but you are come already. In more happi- 
ness, but not more secure, are the glorified spirits 
in heaven ! 

"Ye are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of 
the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innu- 
merable company of angels, to the general assembly and 
church of the first-born, which are written in heaven, 
and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just 
men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new 
covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh 
better things than that of Abel." 

Therefore, in the first verse of the last chapter : 

" Let brotherly love continue. Be not forgetful to 
entertain strangers ; for thereby some have entertained 
angels unawares. Remember them that are in bonds, as 
bound with them ; and them which suffer adversity, as 
being yourselves also in the body. Marriage is honorable 
in all, and the bed undefiled : but whoremongers and 
adulterers God will judge/' 



238 THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 

I ask you never to forget how God joins together 
the highest spiritual blessings with the most solemn 
warnings. " Marriage is honorable in all, and the 
bed undefiled : but whoremongers and adulterers 
God will judge." Why does God speak like this? 
Because He knows what man is. 

"And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and 
hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to 
God for a sweet-smelling savor/' 

is one verse. 

"But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, 
let it not be once named among you, as becometh 
saints ; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, 
which are not convenient : but rather giving of thanks. 
For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean 
person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any 
inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God," 

is the very next sentence. What God thus joins 
together, let us be very careful not to put asunder. 
Oh that you and I may have our feet upon the 
neck of appetite and passion, as Paul says : 

"But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjec- 
tion : lest that by any means when I have preached to 
others, I myself should be a cast-away. 5 ' 

" Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, 
and for ever." There is no change in Him, nor in 
His teachings. You are not to be carried about 
with divers and strange doctrines. There are some 
things in this city which I dare not speak softly 



THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 239 

about. Christ says, " Beware of the leaven of the 
Pharisees." The fact of false doctrine is worse 
than that of drunkenness. False teaching is en- 
trenched in an impregnable fortress of the devil's 
planting. 

In the fifteenth verse, what have you and I to 
do ? We have our sacrifice to offer. It is very 
beautiful. It is the closing thought I give you, and 
I pray you feed upon it until your souls rejoice. 
" By Him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of 
praise to God continually." "Blessed are they that 
dwell in Thy house : they will be still praising 
Thee." Our life should be a long thanksgiving 
psalm of praise. Praise God for the Son that put 
away your sin ; praise Him for the cross that 
brought you life ; praise Him for the power that 
keeps you every moment, and is pledged to keep 
you every moment until you stand in Plis presence ; 
praise Him for all the blessings that flow to you 
through Christ. " By Him therefore let us offer 
the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, 
the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to Plis name." 
Let us shout for joy in possession of Plim through 
whom all things are yours, for ye are in Christ and 
Pie in you. In possession of Plim, the spirit of 
poverty is cast out, for " there is therefore now no 
condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, 
who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." 
Oh, that to-day you may gather the deep, full 
meaning of the words. And now, I need not to 
give a benediction here, for my Father gives it to 
you : 



24O THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 

"Now the God of peace, that brought again from the 
dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, 
through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you 
perfect in every good work, to do his will, working in 
you that which is well-pleasing in his sight, through 
Jesus Christ ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. 
Amen. " 




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